The American people want us out. The Iraqi people want us out. Even Maliki said we can leave whenever we want. Just about everybody in the world except Osama Bin Laden wants us out of Iraq.

Iraq is a sovereign country with a democratically elected government. Our presence keeps them from doing what they need to do, whether it's compromise or an even more massive civil war, to forge their future as one nation or three. In any case 160,000 US troops can't and shouldn't try to decide the political outcome for them anymore than it would have been right for the French to dictate how we governed ourselves after they helped us
defeat the British.

For those who worry about Iranian and Saudi influence let me ask you, if the mighty USA can't bend Iraq to our will what makes you think Iran or Saudi Arabia are going to have any better luck? They may be able to lead the horse to water with guns and money but they can't make it drink and they can't make them fight once Iraqis realize that they, just like Bush, would gladly sacrifice all of Iraq for their own ends.

It should take less than 6 months to redeploy our military out of Iraq. It took 3 and half weeks to fight our way to Baghdad. Leavings 10s of thousands behind to train Iraqis or hunt down terrorists is pointless. Iraqis know very well how to fight and once we leave the few thousand foreign Al Qaeda wannabes will be driven out or exterminated.

Staying bogged down in Iraq is exactly what our enemies want us to do. Occupying Iraq isn't the solution to the problem, it IS the problem.

Could it be that the reports from both strategic and bipartisan sources all confirming that an immediate withdrawl would only leave a bloodbath in Iraq have anything to do with this new "clarified" response. What about the fact that editorialists from the Washington Post, NY Post, and even the NY Times (of all places) have been writing that the recent troop surge is already showing clear results after only one month.

We should all watch and see how opinions soften, and clarifications begin coming out in the next couple of months. Leadership is not about follwoing opinion polls. And, a Commander in Chief listens to his generals not the public in how to conduct a war.

But its obvious that the dems only plan is to continue blaming Bush for the war, not face the realities of it. They give comfort to our enemy while making it harder for the peace loving Iraqi's to achieve their dreams of freedom. Shameful comes to mind.

Who are you expecting to fight for your freedom?

The fact that we have troops in Iraq is the number one issue of the campaign. They want all troops out "now" from what I gather. Will this not distance Obama from the base? Are Kucinich and Richardson now the leaders on this issue (they both think we can start pulling out immediately). Will Obama supporters now have to modify their stance (a la Hillary).

Interesting development...

Barack is also showing solid leadership values for tackling the very core of voter discontent and addressing the serious issue of outright corrpution in the White House.

It is about time someone starts to speak-up and offer some solutions to put an end to this type of robber-baron
dictatorship.

Keep it up Sen. Obama!

At least it is being considered. The Dems dont have complete access to the top military minds to present a clear and current withdrawal strategy. Until they can have the undivided time of those in charges how can they come up with a detailed plan.

Obama is very wise to say that the withdrawal wont be immediate because you cant do that...but to say that he will look at a staged withdrawal is quite smart and really the best option. Until we force the Iraqis to govern themselves, they never will.

So far the Republican strategy of throw more money/lives at the war isnt working wouldnt you agree?

Pulling all the troops out of Iraq could indeed create a vacuum as many military analysts will tell you. It is good to know Obama, if elected, would take a pragmatic view toward resolving Iraq.

What I don't like about Obama is his pandering. Halliburton is the company most people love to hate. The reality is that Halliburton is uniquely suited to situations like Iraq. Any other company trying to do what Halliburton has done would more than likely flounder and scramble to get out.

The Halliburton "sweetheart" contracts that everyone complains about are cost plus, meaning Halliburton is reimbursed for their expense plus a margin of 3 – 7 percent. This percentage of profit is in line with any average Wall Street traded corporation (typically 5 percent). Yes, Halliburton has made a lot of money in Iraq but their profit margin is consistant with any other American corporation.

Obama also knows that the Director of FEMA is appointed by the President. If Obama were to be elected President he would appoint his own FEMA director. Hopefully he would appoint someone with better credentials than a manager of a horse training facility but even so the FEMA Director will still be a friend and ally of Obama.

Obama is definitely a "go getter" and I applaud him for that however my gut instinct tells me the office of President requires more experience than Obama has.

Bush-Cheney light? I think Obama is Clinton-or-Edwards light. Still, he is much better than the repubs.

A vote for Thompson is a vote for status-quo.