Obama Understands Iraq

In an op-ed in yesterday's New York Times, Obama lays out his opinions on and his plans for Iraq, and he gets it exactly right. Some excerpts:

Only by redeploying our troops can we press the Iraqis to reach comprehensive political accommodation and achieve a successful transition to Iraqis’ taking responsibility for the security and stability of their country. Instead of seizing the moment and encouraging Iraqis to step up, the Bush administration and Senator McCain are refusing to embrace this transition — despite their previous commitments to respect the will of Iraq’s sovereign government. They call any timetable for the removal of American troops “surrender,” even though we would be turning Iraq over to a sovereign Iraqi government.

But this is not a strategy for success — it is a strategy for staying that runs contrary to the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States....

We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months...After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces. That would not be a precipitous withdrawal....

As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there. I would not hold our military, our resources and our foreign policy hostage to a misguided desire to maintain permanent bases in Iraq.

He also credits the surge with reducing violence; conservatives have been attacking him for not doing so.

Joe Klein, of Time magazine, has one complaint: "[Obama is] clinging to his 16 month [sic] timetable." I don't interpret it that way. In the editorial, Obama writes that "[i]n carrying out this strategy, we would inevitably need to make tactical adjustments. As I have often said, I would consult with commanders on the ground and the Iraqi government to ensure that our troops were redeployed safely, and our interests protected." To me, that sounds like he hopes he can withdraw the troops in 16 months, but that could change as events unfold.

Personally, I continue to be amazed that for all of McCain's foreign policy experience, Obama seems to understand the outside world much better.