Obama To Travel To Iraq, Afghanistan Before Election?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Foreign Policy, IraqMaybe…
Mr. Obama, who spoke to the Iraqi foreign minister [Hoshyar Zebari] by telephone this morning, said he was “encouraged†by the reductions in violence in Iraq. But he said the United States still must begin gradually withdrawing troops, at a pace of one to two brigades a month, with a goal of removing most combat troops in 16 months.“We have no interest in permanent bases in Iraq,†Mr. Obama said. “I gave him an assurance that should we be elected, an Obama administration will make sure that we continue with the progress that’s been made in Iraq – that we won’t act precipitously, but that we will move to end U.S. combat forces in Iraq.â€
So when will the visit be?
Today, Mr. Obama did not say specifically when he intended to take his foreign trip.“You know, we’ll make an announcement about that,†he said. “But as I said, I’m interested in visiting Iraq and Afghanistan before the election.â€
“Interested in” is not the same as “I will.”
More as it develops…
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This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 and is filed under Barack, Foreign Policy, Iraq. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Obama To Travel To Iraq, Afghanistan Before Election?…
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June 17th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I doubt that Obama will move outside of the USA before November.
Iraq and Afghanistan would be a nightmare for his security team and I doubt whether he would get ‘official’ support to go there or get close to the troops. The latter would be a PR coup that Bush/McCain could not allow him.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
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===== HEY OBAMA – YOU’RE 7 YEARS LATE TO AFGHANISTAN =====
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George Bush was in Afghanistan 7 years ago, bombing the Taliban, al Qaeda and the terrorist training camps back to the stone age, and Obama (of the General Betray Us party) is just figuring out Afghanistan is the place to go? Where have you been for the past 7 years? What took you so long?
July 20th, 2008 at 11:04 am
With the desperation of the GOP, all I got to say is watch out for snipers on the roof tops, they mat blame it on muslim extremist
May 5th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Obama administration needs to get more aggressive on Afghanistan. Taliban together with Al Qaeda elements keep reemerging from place to place and this continued resistance could destabilize the country, Afghan government, as well as neighboring Pakistan, our ally in the War on Terror. This could as well undermine whole War on Terror efforts and operations. The NATO force in Afghanistan needs to grow and there has to be more involvement on the side of Pakistani government, to keep pressure on Taliban, Al Qaeda, so that they will not be able to keep fighting, their hideouts will not be able to provide safety to them and keep them under constant pressure. It’s also about a time to shift focus and steer our military strategy slowly from Iraq towards Afghanistan.