The White House issued a press statement this morning, coinciding with the latest video conference between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Pay particular attention to the delightful new euphemism.
“In the context of these improving political, economic, and security conditions, the President and the Prime Minister discussed the ongoing negotiations to establish a normalized bilateral relationship between Iraq and the United States. The leaders agreed on a common way forward to conclude these negotiations as soon as possible, and noted in particular the progress made toward completing a broad strategic framework agreement that will build on the Declaration of Principles signed last November, and include areas of cooperation across many fields, including economics, diplomacy, health, culture, education, and security.
“In the area of security cooperation, the President and the Prime Minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals — such as the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of U.S. combat forces from Iraq. The President and Prime Minister agreed that the goals would be based on continued improving conditions on the ground and not an arbitrary date for withdrawal.” [emphasis added]
So, the Bush administration is coming around on the notion of a withdrawal timetable? No, no, of course not. Don’t be silly. They’re just beginning to see the merit in a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals.
I can just picture the White House communications staffers, sitting around, trying to come up with the right phrase that didn’t include “timetable.” They best they could up with is “general time horizon,” which I can’t help but find kind of amusing.
Newsday’s John Riley points out the ways in which Bush and McCain seem to be coming around to Obama’s way of thinking.
McCain can still take credit for anticipating the helpful effects of the surge, and he can point to the language about “improving conditions on the ground” instead of an “arbitrary” deadline. But how can he seriously argue that Obama and the Democrats are wrong in calling for a timetable for eliminating combat forces, when the White House and the Iraqi government are also calling for a timetable.
Notably, this comes during a week when the WH has also moved in Obama’s direction by authorizing a top envoy to meet with Iran over nuclear enrichment.
Yes, and McCain took Obama’s Afghanistan policy as his own, too.
In fact, Josh Marshall noted the trend, highlighting the fact that Bush and McCain, in coordination, have been “systematically drawing back from their positions on Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran and either fully embracing or moving toward those held for some time by Barack Obama.”
McCain and now the White House (via the DOD) are moving toward more US troops in Afghanistan — a position they’ve each long opposed and which Obama has been on record in support of for at least a year.
Bush and McCain have each also in different ways tried to nudge closer to Obama’s position on withdrawing troops from Iraq. The key shoe falling today is President Bush’s embrace of a “time horizon” for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Meanwhile, McCain’s declaration of military victory in Iraq seems very much like an effort to get people thinking the troops are coming home soon within the conceptual architecture of his professed goals in Iraq.
And finally Iran. I’m not certain what McCain himself has said about Iran in recent days. But over recent months a key line of attack from the president and John McCain has been that Obama is a latter-day Neville Chamberlain for saying we should negotiate with Iran. And now over recent days we’ve learned that the White House is sending one of its top diplomats to negotiate directly with Iran’s nuclear negotiator. And there are growing signs the White House is poised to open a diplomatic interests section (an unofficial diplomatic outpost) in Tehran.
In the case of Iran, the flashpoint has been meetings between heads of state. So there’s not a direct equation. And McCain’s and Bush’s supporters can still point to this as the bright line they have not and will not cross.
But when the spin is wiped away, for all the scrutiny and hand-wringing about the nuances about Obama’s 16 months, there’s simply no denying that all the real movement at this point in the campaign shows Bush/McCain trying to nudge closer to the ground Obama already holds.
For an inexperienced rube, I guess that Obama guy knows what he’s talking about on foreign policy after all.