Obama on Iraqi Government Request for Timetable: Let's Agree to Withdrawal Schedule

As we thought, Barack Obama is embracing the al-Maliki government’s indication that it wants a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal. Obama is going on the offensive against the McCain Iraq strategy. He has a Times op-ed out framing the issue around the Iraqis’ pushback to the Bush Administration request for an open-ended Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

From Obama’s article:

…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.