Obama Downplays Impact of Troop Surge
Barack Obama continued Tuesday to downplay the results of the so-called troop surge in Iraq, telling CBS News that while he credits the surge with helping to reduce violence in Iraq it “doesn’t meet our long-term strategic goal.”
Earlier, Obama — in the middle of an overseas trip that so far has taken him to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Jordan — had drawn criticism from John McCain’s campaign after he told ABC News that, knowing what he knows now, he still would have opposed the troop surge in Iraq.
Asked about that comment, Obama said in his latest interview with CBS News that “there’s no doubt” spending billions a month in Iraq and sending extra troops will “have an impact.”
“But it doesn’t meet our long-term strategic goal, which is to make the American people safer over the long term,” he said, repeating his argument that the resources spent in Iraq are detracting from U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.
The Illinois senator again said the surge is just one of several factors that has helped reduce violence.
“There is no doubt that the extraordinary work of our U.S. forces has contributed to a lessening of the violence, just as making sure that the Sadr militia stood down or the fact that the Sunni tribes decided to flip and work with us instead of with Al Qaeda,” he said.
Obama earlier in the day declined to rate the troop surge as a success, saying: “I think that the definition of success depends on how you look at it.
“Originally, the administration suggested that the key measure was whether it gave breathing room for political reconciliation. So far, I think we have not seen the kind of political reconciliation that’s going to bring about long-term stability in Iraq,” he said.
McCain told CBS News that Obama’s view of the surge is “really quite a commentary.”
Asked what he meant by that, McCain said: “That Senator Obama does not understand the challenges we face and … the need for the surge. And the fact that he did not understand that, and still denies that it has succeeded, I think the American people will make their judgment.”
Click here to read the transcript of Obama’s interview with CBS News.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
the surge helped quell the violence but i don’t call it a success. I forgot when losing a life to a war that we should have never started should be called a success. Of the 30,000 additional troops that we sent over there we have already lost 326 (not all were from combat, but its a life that was lost because of this surge). Look in the eyes of the families that those service members that are coming home in body bags and tell us that it was a success. My brother and I went there as part of the additional surge only 1 of us returned home to our family. Kind of hard to call anything a success when a life of many honorable men and women are being lost over there
Come November the silent majority will speak(the independents) and the true leader will be elected(McCain).
Marla:
If you haven’t noticed, your savior(BO) is going to pull troops out of Iraq but not bring them home. He’s going to put them in Afghanistan along with what JM has stated also.
So you better include the Dems and BO in your statement about “just a bunch of WAR happy, hungry MEN!!”
I think Obama knows that if he backs off on his assessment that the surge was wrong from the get go, he opens himself up for much more criticism, but at the same time he knows he can’t short-change the impact the surge has had in Iraq. This is basically, the best POLITICAL answer he can give, and NOT the right one. As far as timetables, I can speak first hand after deployments to Iraq in 2005-2006, and 2006-2007 that any artificial timetables are a recipe for disaster in themselves. We have senior military officials who assess the situation and are briefed constantly on the current situation, and they are the ones that should be making recommendations to government officials…NOT the other way around. Believe me, I do not relish the idea of returning to Iraq, but I would rather get the job done now, than have to do it all over again in a few years.