Obama’s recent visit to the Middle East was termed as a “learning trip”, with Obama to see first hand the progress being made in the fight he wishes to abandon. As expected, Obama’s view of Iraq has not changed, as he still endorses his original 16 month timetable for withdrawal, which if enacted when he had first proposed it in Congress, would have had our troops home 6 months ago. Though it is not a surprise the Senator’s position on Iraq has not changed, at least not dramatically, what is surprising is how obtuse he was towards the Iraqi people.

The New York Post is reporting today that sources close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared that Obama was not interested in what they had to say, and his analysis is “way off the mark”.

“He looked like a man in a hurry,” a source close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said last week. “He was not interested in what we had to say.”

In public and private comments, Obama tried to give the impression that the Iraqis would’ve achieved the same results even without the greater resources America has poured into the country since 2007.

In private, though, Iraqi officials admit that Obama’s analysis is “way off the mark.” Without the surge, the Sunni tribes wouldn’t have switched sides to help flush out al Qaeda. And the strong US military presence enabled the new Iraqi army to defeat Iran-backed Shiite militias in Basra and Baghdad.

Iraqis were most surprised by Obama’s apparent readiness to throw away all the gains made in Iraq simply to prove that he’d been right in opposing the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein. “He gave us the impression that the last thing he wanted was for Iraq to look anything like a success for the United States,” a senior Iraqi official told me. “As far as he is concerned, this is Bush’s war and must end in lack of success, if not actual defeat.”

This echoes what conservatives have been saying for months. If Iraq were looked upon as a success by the American people, Obama’s unwillingness to overthrow Saddam Hussein may hurt him in November. His unwillingness to learn from his “learning trip” however is something which should concern the American people to a far greater extent. If the goal of Obama’s visit to Iraq was to view first hand what is going on there, and be briefed by those overseeing the progress on a daily basis, why then did officials have the impression Obama was not listening to what they had to say?

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Barack Obama, Election 2008, Features, Iraq, Politics