Obama opens door to Iraq policy shift

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-4  |     ONLINE EDITION

US Democrat Barack Obama opened the door yesterday to refining his plan to bring US troops home from Iraq in 16 months based on what he hears from military commanders during his upcoming trip there.

"I am going to do a thorough assessment when I'm there," he told reporters on the airport tarmac here. "I'm sure I'll have more information and continue to refine my policy."

During his presidential campaign, Obama has gone from the hard-edged, vocal opposition to Iraq that defined his early candidacy to more nuanced rhetoric that calls for a phased-out drawdown of all combat brigades that, at a rate of one or two a month, could last 16 months. He has said that if al-Qaida builds bases in Iraq, he would keep troops either in the country or the region to carry out "targeted strikes."

Republicans, who have been goading Obama to return to Iraq to see conditions for himself, pounced.

"There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience," said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the national Republican Party. "Obama's Iraq problem undermines the central premise of his candidacy and shows him to be a typical politician."

Obama's GOP rival, John McCain, has been a vocal supporter of the Iraq war and war policy has been a central disagreement between the two candidates.

But Obama insisted that his position has not changed at all.

He said he is saying now what he always has: The war was a mistake and needs to be brought to "a responsible end," but "we need to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in." This means, he said, that his 16-month timeline "was always premised on" not endangering either US troops or Iraq's stability, which he had previously been told by commanders was possible.

"I'm going to continue to gather information to see whether those conditions still hold," he said. "My goal is to end this conflict as soon as possible."