Is Presidential Candidate Obama Interfering In U.S./Iraq Negotiations?

Obama Tried To Sway Iraqis On Bush Deal

-- Washington Times

In private conversations on troop presence, candidate pitched delay.

At the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to keep the U.S. military in Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to convince Iraqi leaders in private conversations that the president shouldn't be allowed to enact the deal without congressional approval.

Mr. Obama's conversations with the Iraqi leaders, confirmed to The Washington Times by his campaign aides, began just two weeks after he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination in June and stirred controversy over the appropriateness of a White House candidate's contacts with foreign governments while the sitting president is conducting a war.

Some of the specifics of the conversations remain the subject of dispute. Iraqi leaders purported to The Times that Mr. Obama urged Baghdad to delay an agreement with Mr. Bush until next year when a new president will be in office - a charge the Democratic campaign denies.

Read more ....

My Comment: If true .... what the hell is he thinking? When you are elected President .... that is when you can influence policy.

President Bush's Secret Support Of General Petraeus

General Petraeus and President Bush

Bush Gave Petraeus Back-Channel Support
-- Washington Times

President Bush delivered a back-channel message of personal support to Gen. David Petraeus when the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq felt undermined late in 2007 by a lack of support from the Pentagon, State Department and his own military superiors, a new book says.

Gen. Petraeus believed any further troop reductions in Iraq should be contingent on reductions in violence. But he was under intense pressure from those above him to reduce the U.S. troop presence as soon as possible, according to "The War Within: A Secret White House History," by Bob Woodward.

President Bush supported Gen. Petraeus, but did it through a back channel, without telling almost anyone.

Mr. Bush went outside the chain of command and delivered a message of support to Gen. Petraeus through a retired Army officer, Gen. Jack Keane.

"I waited over three years for a successful strategy. And I'm not giving up on it prematurely," Mr. Bush said, in a message relayed by Gen. Keane to Gen. Petraeus, just after Gen. Petraeus' two days of testimony on Sept. 11 and 12, 2007.

"I want Dave to know that I want him to win He will have as much force as he needs for as long as he needs it."

Read more ....

My Comment: The politics of the Iraq Surge can be summarized into the following ..... General Petraeus, The Pentagon, Joint Chiefs Of Staff, the National Security Adviser, State Department, mid level officers in the field, the media, Congress, the Senate, political opponents, political supporters, think tanks, interest groups, advisory groups .... and I an not even taking into consideration the Iraqi side of this equation.

I am not a blind supporter of President Bush, but if he pulls this off .... and it looks like he will .... this period of American History will be studied for years as a successful venture on the part of the American Presidency and the use of his political office and the instruments of government and the military.