Obama to meet with top U.S. commander for Iraq
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/06/02/art.getty.obama.3.3.jpg caption="President Obama is scheduled to meet with U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno Wednesday morning."]Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama will meet with U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno at the Oval Office Wednesday morning to get a first-hand account of conditions in Iraq from the top commander for the country.
Odierno is responsible for determining the pace of withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. But the administration has said the deadline - the end of August - remains on schedule despite the recent spike in violence there.
"We plan for everything. But right now, every expectation is that we will meet the 50,000 as of the first of September," said Secretary Robert Gates on May 20.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Saturday found that 64 percent of Americans favor the president's plan to keep just 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of the summer, with 35 percent opposed.
But the national poll indicated that support for the planned removal could drop significantly if Iraq cannot solve its current problems in time.
With the reduction of troops, the U.S. now has more troops in Afghanistan than Iraq for the first time since 2003.
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Mr. Obama is going to outline the terms of surrender.
I would have hope the statement included something along the lines of "with the current levels of violence and trends to a stronger Iraqi response to violence and law enforcement." That would have made me feel a bit better. I know things change and that could be the factor that leave troops in longer. I don't think anyone wants that.
Bozo in Chief will do whatever he wants regarding troop withdrawal. His meeting with Gen. Odierno is just a facade.
Al Queda # 3 is dead. I think it's safe to say that this administration is bring ing the fight to the enemy.
Kinda weird that this corrupt, inept presidents attorney general is threatenting BP criminal prosecution over environmental laws that may have been violated as a result of the oil spill, and yet is threatening to try to get the Arizona immigration law, which mirrors the federal law, overturned. This same corrupt, inept government refuses to tell the truth about the Sestak/Clinton/Emmanuel/Obama cooked up story, yet condemns BP execs and Wall Street executives with absolutely no evidence. Impeach Obozo.
Obama made a big deal of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when he campaigned -– and yet 15 months later we are satill in Iraq and we have more troops in Afghanistan. Obama has morphed into every other DC beauracrat - he is now officially a useless politician - he just talks a good game.
It is time to cut ties with the heroin capital of the world and leave Afghanistant as there is absolutely nothing in that country that is important to us –nothing. And as far as Iraq goes, just GET OUT
Bring the troops home Mr president – bring them all home.
America owes a debt of gratitude to Jarge Bush, the village idiot for getting us into that quagmire based on nothing ut lies and greed for oil. Now, the Republican's nemesis, Obama must reduce our insane directionless occupation on foreign soil. They need to build a statue of Alfred E. Newman over there and put Jarge Bush's name on it since they look alike and have the same IQ.
Barry sit down and listen for once.
Criticizing the Commander in Chief during a time of war is treason.
get all our troops home now,,,,,this is insane to keep them there one more day....
how bout a slap on the back and a congrats on a well earned VICTORY Barry. but wait...we wouldn't want to offend anyone. with any luck...the general will just nod in agreement to His Highness and turn around and just do the job he was trained to do. no one's watching anyway.
i can see the scene a couple of days ago. rahm nudging barry...saying, 'ya know...we haven't been briefed on the situation in iraq for a while...it might look good...and take some heat off our oil spill screw up." great idea...says barry! have gibbs dust off my 'blame bush' talking points and call general ordierno pronto!
Good. I hope Obama told him to start making preparations for full withdrawal.