A handout picture from the Multi National Force-Iraq shows US General David Petraeus (R) talking with US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (L) as they fly over Baghdad during a helicopter tour on July 21. Obama said on Tuesday after a high-profile tour to Iraq that he wanted US troops out in 2010 but stressed that the country also need a political solution to the conflict. (AFP/MNFI/Staff Sgt Lorie Jewell)A number of conservative pundits have been criticizing the main stream media for bias in favor of Senator Obama. Todays Washington Post goes a big way to disprove this perception:
From The Washington Post
Mr. Obama in Iraq: Did he really find support for his withdrawal plan?
THE INITIAL MEDIA coverage of Barack Obama's visit to Iraq suggested that the Democratic candidate found agreement with his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces on a 16-month timetable. So it seems worthwhile to point out that, by Mr. Obama's own account, neither U.S. commanders nor Iraq's principal political leaders actually support his strategy.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of the dramatic turnaround in U.S. fortunes, "does not want a timetable," Mr. Obama reported with welcome candor during a news conference yesterday. In an interview with ABC, he explained that "there are deep concerns about . . . a timetable that doesn't take into account what [American commanders] anticipate might be some sort of change in conditions."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has a history of tailoring his public statements for political purposes, made headlines by saying he would support a withdrawal of American forces by 2010. But an Iraqi government statement made clear that Mr. Maliki's timetable would extend at least seven months beyond Mr. Obama's. More significant, it would be "a timetable which Iraqis set" -- not the Washington-imposed schedule that Mr. Obama has in mind. It would also be conditioned on the readiness of Iraqi forces, the same linkage that Gen. Petraeus seeks. As Mr. Obama put it, Mr. Maliki "wants some flexibility in terms of how that's carried out."
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Behind Maliki's Games By Max Boot -- Washington Post
There is some irony in the fact that Democrats, after years of deriding Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a hopeless bungler and conniving Shiite sectarian, are now treating as sacrosanct his suggestion that Iraq will be ready to assume responsibility for its own security by 2010. Naturally this is because his position seems to support that of Barack Obama.
A little skepticism is in order here. The prime minister has political motives for what he's saying -- whatever that is. An anonymous Iraqi official told the state-owned Al-Sabah newspaper, "Maliki thinks that Obama is most likely to win in the presidential election" and that "he's got to take preemptive steps before Obama gets to the White House." By smoothing Obama's maiden voyage abroad as the Democratic nominee, Maliki may figure that he will collect chits that he can call in later.
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My Comment: Sen. Obama's election team have been touting Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's support of Sen. Obama's Iraq withdrawl plan. But The Washington Post demolishes P.M. Maliki's track record in this regard. That if there is anyone who has been consistently right when it comes to Iraq .... it has and is Gen. Petraeus.
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