{"id":16308,"date":"2008-07-21T15:25:06","date_gmt":"2008-07-21T19:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/16273.html"},"modified":"2008-07-21T15:25:06","modified_gmt":"2008-07-21T19:25:06","slug":"iraqis-obama-and-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/iraqis-obama-and-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqis, Obama, and 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on an item<\/a> from this morning, the AP ran a story noting that Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesperson for the Maliki government in Iraq, endorsed the idea of a U.S. withdrawal “by 2010.” The timeframe, the AP noted, is “similar to Obama\u2019s proposal to pull back combat troops within 16 months.”<\/p>\n

The AP piece did not, however, include any direct quotes. Fortunately, there’s a video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Now, the audio isn’t great, and English isn’t Dabbagh’s first language, but he seems to say, “We are not talking about the timetable which has been used for the [U.S.] election. We are talking on a real timetable that Iraqis<\/i> set.” When a reporter asked what that timetable would be, it sounded like Dabbagh said, “Up to 2010.”<\/p>\n

By saying he’s making a distinction between Iraqi expectations and the U.S. presidential election, Dabbagh seems to be arguing that the Maliki government and Barack Obama have the same timeframe in mind, but that’s just a happy coincidence. Obama wants to have U.S. troops out by 2010, and Maliki wants U.S. troops out by 2010, but only because it’s a sound, sensible policy. Maliki’s support for the timetable is independent of Obama’s support for the same timetable.<\/p>\n

Whatever. Frankly, it doesn’t much matter why<\/i> Iraqi officials support Obama’s policy; it matters that<\/i> they support Obama’s policy.<\/p>\n

And given all of this, the media couldn’t possibly screw up the story, right? Well, there’s still the Washington Post….
\n
\nKeep in mind, at this point, the Post is the nation’s only major daily newspaper not<\/i> to run its own article devoted to Maliki and Obama sharing a withdrawal timetable. In other words, the WaPo’s recent coverage on this issue hasn’t been especially stellar. (The Post does have room today for the eighth chapter in its 13-part series<\/a> on Chandra Levy’s murder seven years ago.)<\/p>\n

Today, the WaPo did note<\/a> the Maliki government’s Obama-like position on withdrawal — but only to note that Dabbagh “would like U.S. troops to withdraw by the end of 2010 — eight months later than Obama’s proposal.”<\/p>\n

Got that? The campaign-changing event — the Maliki government’s support for Obama’s policy — is largely ignored, right up until the moment the Post emphasizes the notion that Maliki and Obama disagree<\/i>.<\/p>\n

What’s more, it’s not even clear if the Post is right. Reuters’ report noted that Dabbagh mentioned “the end of 2010” as “the appropriate time for the withdrawal.” The AP report quoted Dabbagh saying, “We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq.”<\/p>\n

Which is right? At this point, it’s not at all clear. But in a sense, it doesn’t much matter — either way, the Iraqi government fundamentally rejects John McCain’s policy and either embraces Obama’s approach, or comes awfully close.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying that an eight-month difference is necessary trivial; it’s not. I am saying that McCain’s policy of an indefinite war followed by an indefinite presence that could last “100 years” is so far outside the realm of discussion here, it’s hard to take McCain’s policy seriously at all.<\/p>\n

For the WaPo to emphasize the minor-if-existent differences between Maliki and Obama seems to wildly miss the point of these developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up on an item from this morning, the AP ran a story noting that Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesperson for the Maliki government in Iraq, endorsed the idea of a U.S. withdrawal “by 2010.” The timeframe, the AP noted, is “similar to Obama\u2019s proposal to pull back combat troops within 16 months.” The AP piece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}