CNN

The best thing Obama can do is let Bush's, and soon to be Obama's, secretary of defense Robert Gates handle the withdrawl of our troops. Obama, Reid, and Pelosi proved they know absolutely nothing when it comes to the military and what they are capable of achieving, "the surge is not working, it will never work, the war is lost". I give Obama a huge amount of credit for keeping Gates, and now he should just stay out of the way and let Gates and the Generals handle the withdrawl that they, the Bush administration, and the Iraqi government have put in motion. Anyone remember what happened when we left Vietnam, all at once, in a big hurry? Cambodia, the killing fields, any of this ring a bell radical libs?

I really like how Obama really does put country first by giving our troops that much respect even though it might pose a challenge for him. This is a sign of a great administration to come. Good job President-Elect Obama. I have cofidence that Obama will do what is right for all Americans and for the world. God bless America.
PS. I agree with Peter from California. WELCOME TO THE OBAMA SHOW, I am to waiting for an intelligent comment from you that does not involve close minded and uneducated words. You can give that for Christmas as well.

The one thing the military has consistently proven is that they have no idea what is "the way ahead in Iraq."

Yes Obama ...you are right .. get our trooops out of Iraq now...

Those of you that are bashing Obama would really like to see Obama fail but he won't.I think that's why you'll be with the rest of us paying for the last eight years of the Bush Administration the only thing the rest of us aren't is so stupid to know that Obama didn't put us where we are which is in a recession.The only thing Bush will be leaving you is a messed up economyy for Obama to clean up.You people are really I mean really stupid and upset because another republican wasn't elected.Haven't you learned anything after eight years or do someone have to throw a shoe at you to knock some sense into your heads.The ones you need to be bashing is Rumsfeld,Cheney,Rove,Bush and those on wall street that have drained us dry financially .McCain is back to the old John Mccain and he seems to be fed up with these liars and crooks .Your all pathedic think about those men and women losing there lives in Iraq and bringing this war to an end and stop thinking about yourself and hoping Obama fails because he may be the only hope of getting those brave men and women back home with their families

yo yo yo yo respect yo elders aiiiiiiiiight? respuck.

@nom de plume,

If on 20 January Obama said "I want all the troops out now!", how long do you think it would take to remove 150,000 soldiers, war material, equipment, etc.? How long to break down the bases, the prisons (with all the people in them)?

Let me give you a hint - it's not instantaneous. 16 months is actually quite reasonable. 3 years isn't horrible either, since that's talking about all the troops, not just combat troops.

So let the man operate - he seems to know what he's doing...

Troops could remain in Iraq beyond 2011, but "that is up to the Iraqi's..." that's our collective problem – allowing the Iraqi's to make decisions for us and to control our destiny. Get out now! Invest in America, not Iraq.

OBOMA WILL PULL THE TROOPS OUT. AND HE WILL DO IT BY USING GOOD JUDGEMENT. OUR TROOPS HAS TO GET OUT SAFE THEIR LIVES CANNOT BE PUT IN DANGER WILL WITH DRAWING. OBOMA WILL BRING OUR TROOPS HOME. AND PEOPLE SHOULD BE PRAYING FOR THE LORD TO GUIDE OBOMA IN DOING SO INSTEAD OF BEING SO CRIDICAL

I guess we can all say "Obama lied, people died"?

and there is nothing I can do about it but have a broken heart for the rest of my life.

every minute that the illegal and immoral war/occupation continues means many more dead people. War is about death and nothing else – ask the families of the dead people.

Isn't it wonderful our leaders can sling around dates and quantities for a withdrawal date while they and theirs are safe and sound but innocent Iraq people die everyday, every minute. Innocent soldiers die who were lied to. It just makes me sick
The time to withdraw is NOW. Not later, not in 2 years, not in 16 months. NOW NOW NOW .

If you had someone you loved die in this horrible iraq war you would know where I am coming from. I am so mad, I am so angry, I am so sad and so disappointed that the President of my country betrayed us all.

Democrat No More,

Thank you for not being a Democrat anymore, because your an idiot.

So the economy will turn around when Obama stops being Shady????

LOL

Obama said based on the conditions. Do not compare Obama (who knows who the war is against) with George W (who invades a country for oil under the disguise of 'democracy and freedom') as the same. Whether it takes 16 months or 2- 3 years at least he's put us in the direction of getting the heck out of Iraq!

Don't get mad at Obama. Bush and the Republicans put us in Iraq in the first place and caused this mess. McCain would have had us in Iraq for the next 100 years! It was like McCain got off on going to war!

Most of the military veterans arent for the war and haven been for many years, contrary to the guy above who said that.

Obama expected by some Americans to rescue them from everything. Wronggggg!!

Do I even have to read this? I'm sure he's just reiterating his promise to have the troops out in 16 months. That's May 20, 2010 by my calendar.

No crap Sherlock!

@ Archie H.

You're completely right. Us lefties hate the military so much we want our sons and daughters to come home ALIVE as soon as possible. It's not the military we hate dopey...it's the errant use of force and shameless waste of human life for unjustifiable nonsense that we've got a problem with. Capiche?

once america gets to keep the billions of dollars that the republicans and bush have been giving to iraq every month, i think then people will understand obamas plan for america.

@ Welcome to the Obama Show

Well, whatever yo may think about Obama, at least God is more likely to help us over the next 4 years...seeing as how we will no longer have a minion of satan as our POTUS.

People give Obama a break he has not even taken the oath yet. If he does not get our troops out we can get him out in 4 yrs.

So another promise broken, what promise has he kept. He shelved don't ask don't tell, he has appointed dozens of lobbyist to his staff, he isn't repealing the Bush tax cuts, he has decided against the windfall profits tax on big oil, and now the troops aren't going to be home in 16 months.

It's funny that most Iraq Veterans are for the war, and would like to see it through, myself included.

Hey Obama Show-Still waiting for an intelligent, constructive comment from you. Can I have one for Christmas?

I have a friend in Iraq. The situation changes a lot. Hopefully, PE Obama can start to move troops out but we do need to be careful of a power vacuum. My buddy told me the Iraqi troops in his region have very little incentive to take over the defense of the country so this could be a big problem.

You can bank on it considering the loathing of the military by the left !

GOD HELP US FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS!!

How many more must die in vein? Just so a handfull can get richer.

I understand that Obama has told us that there will be a few things that he just wouldn't be able to do, some promises broken along the way, but even if we have to wait another 12 months, oh well, at least it's not another decade! He's ending the war once and for all, and that's what we really want.

As for the multitude of other issues Obama has to deal with, well, we will have to wait and see where the road leads.

what do you expect from a typical politician...say what people want to hear to get elected than when elected to whatever you want....if people question you....just play the race card....all is well

Only way to make Bush look good is time and Obama.

To GM – "Start the list of broken promises"

What are you on? Obama has said all along that he wants to pull the troops out of Iraq within 16 months. He also made clear that it was condition based. That we would need to keep some troops there to train the Iraqi's. There is a big difference between his plan and Bush's. Bush's plan wants to just pull them out of Cities. Obama will pull them out of Iraq, and leave just enough to train the Iraqi's. Please get your facts straight before you spout of at the mouth...

Did "Change we can believe in" mean I'm going to change my mind several times you can believe me!

Man I wish Dubya wasn't so shady, so we wouldn't have to get this economy turned around BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T HAVE TANKED IN THE FIRST PLACE!!

GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE... IT ALL HAPPENED ON DUBYA'S WATCH!!!!

He will be Commander-in-Chief and the military will do whatever the heck he tells them to do!! He'll be pulling them out of Iraq and re-deploying many of them to Afghanistan... where they should have been this whole time!

The Iraq war will be over the day Obama steps foot into the White House... and Dubya will go down in history as one of our nation's worst presidents who started a war he refused to end, cost the lives and body parts of close to 20,000 of our young soldiers, and wasted how many BILLIONS of dollars JUST TO GO AFTER SADDAM, BECAUSE SADDAM WENT AFTER DADDY? THANK YOU, DUBYA!!

I'll be rooting for you during your war-crimes tribunal...

GOD HELP US FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obama would have promised the moon if he thought that would get him where he is now.

Obama would have promised the moon if he thought that would get him where he is now.

Start the list of broken promises.

Nothing is wrong with that.

SHADY ?

Democrat No More...... ARE YOU LOSING YOUR MIND? Surely you are not going to try to blame the economy of Obama... I cannot believe my ears.... have you been living under a rock the last 8 years.....

Hold on... wait a minute! Cindy, is that you again, Girl? *sigh* suck it up.... your man LOST! *LOL* Fast your seat belt and get ready for the Ride!

Surprise, surprise, surprise...not.

Obama NEVER talked about an unlimited "responsible drawdown," he only talked about a specific time period of within 16 months "to be done in a responsible manner" – that's May 2010.

It was McCain, Bush, Maliki, and others who talked about a responsible pullout without a specific deadline.

This will be a critical situation how to get all troops deployed safely. The withdraw should have been planned before starting this STUPID war. I pray that it goes smoothly , but if not ALL THE BLAME will be on Obamas shoulders (which is just wrong). We should not have been there in the first place, so I will always point my finger at the CURRENT ADMINISTRATION. PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR TROOPS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL

KEEP THE PROMISE. TROOPS OUT NOW.

NOT THREE YEARS. NOT SIXTEEN MONTHS

MR PRESIDENT, YOU SAID NOW, AND WE WILL HOLD YOU TO YOUR WORD.

so the bush cronies tried to slide one by Obama, thank goodness he is honest and straight forward and caught the liars at their game! With this man in charge there is NO DOUBT that the economy and the country will finally turn around and get headed in the right direction!

After all we've done for Iraq and they want us out of there....I say I'm Outta Here! Let's see what they can do. One thing could be they need to learn manners. Our troops don't need to keep sacrificing for the likes of them.

I hope that means he bring the troops home sooner.

For the past 8 years, GW didn’t just dig a hole, he was completely buried you and others in your country, dead or alive.
A goodbye kiss from a pair of shoes, couldn’t do enough justice
Bush was the worse shady president ever.
He is going down in American history for years to come as one of the worse, shady, insane president.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter how shady Obama is, he couldn’t’ be worse than GW Bush.

Obama has called only for combat troops to be out by mid-2010, with a residual force remaining behind to help train Iraqi troops, protect U.S. interests and conduct anti-terrorism missions.

Who exactly conducts anti-terrorism missions if not combat troops?

He's doing and will continue to do exactly what he did in the Senate. A whole lot of nothing.

Rome wasn't built in a day and besides...all this economy came about not because of Obama but the Shady higher ups of each bank, company, etc. I feel he has a better chance at it. The guy (Obama) is no dummy. He's surrounding himself with brilliant people and I do believe is a perfectionist. My confidense is in Obama.

Funny – I could have sworn Obama said many times that it would depend on conditions on the ground. You all spinning again CNN?

Man I wish Obama wasn't so shady, so we could get this economy turned around.