Obama and Withdrawal From Iraq

For the longest time, a near immediate withdrawal of military forces from the Middle East was one of the keystones to Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency. In the past month, however, Obama has sought to win swing voters by moving away from the left and towards the center (as all candidates tend to do towards election time). Regardless, the issue is still one of Obama’s key differentiating factors from McCain, which makes his recent fuzzy behavior questionable. Some tech savvy folks within McCain’s campaign actually utilized a web spidering diff tool from Versionista to actually show how pages on Obama’s website have changed – specifically any changes from stoutly declaring withdrawal to conceding the decision would need to be based on more information.

At the same time, the recent change in heart from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki calling for a timetable on foreign withdrawal is being welcomed as an opportunity by Obama’s campaign. But is this an opportunity to safely return to the original troop withdrawal stance, or an opportunity to center himself and then withdraw troops as a statesmen?