Election 2008

OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS' IRAQ WITHDRAWAL - New York Post:

"According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.
'He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,' Zebari said in an interview."

Hmmm, why does this not surprise me? not just because I've never trusted Obama from the time he was running for the House of Rep and lost ... but also because this is basic party-politics.

It has less to do with what's right for Iraq and more to do with making the other party look bad ...

But here's what the Iraqi officials really think:

" Iraqi leaders are divided over the US election. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (whose party is a member of the Socialist International) sees Obama as "a man of the Left" - who, once elected, might change his opposition to Iraq's liberation.

Indeed, say Talabani's advisers, a President Obama might be tempted to appropriate the victory that America has already won in Iraq by claiming that his intervention transformed failure into success.
Maliki's advisers have persuaded him that Obama will win - but the prime minister worries about the senator's "political debt to the anti-war lobby" - which is determined to transform Iraq into a disaster to prove that toppling Saddam Hussein was "the biggest strategic blunder in US history."
Other prominent Iraqi leaders, such as Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani, believe that Sen. John McCain would show "a more realistic approach to Iraqi issues."

it looks like, despite what the papers are printing, that the best choice for keeping the area stable would be McCain.

The other thing that is going on, is that since Bush is talking about pulling out troops the democrats spin-machine is going strong trying to make it seem as if Bush is only doing this because of the upcoming elections and he wants to give McCain a leg up.

Problem being that this was about the time they figured they would be able to start pulling out troops ... and that they would be completely out by 2012 unless the government gave permission for a station there (like we have in other countries).