Barack Obama feigned outrage when John McCain questioned his patriotism by stating that Obama would rather lose a war than lose an election. Obama insisted that he was not making an attempt to politicize Iraq and was only concerned with taking our troops out of harms way, and bringing them home. In fairness to Barack Obama, that is exactly what he wants to do, however he is working behind the scenes to assure that President Bush doesn’t beat him to the punch.

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.

Obama claims that it is in both nations interest not to negotiate a withdrawal agreement with the Bush administration because of its “state of weakness and political confusion.” The only political confusion I see however is with regards to Obama’s position on troop withdrawal. His claim is that he would like troops withdrawn immediately, however he would like the Iraqis to hold off on any agreement until he is President.

As Maliki noted, Obama has a “political debt to the anti-war lobby”. He intends to pay off this debt by keeping American soldiers in Iraq until it is politically viable to pull them out. As John McCain had said regarding Obama position on the surge, “It was a moment when political self-interest and the national interest parted ways,” Once again we see Barack Obama putting his own interests instead of those of our country.

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Barack Obama, Election 2008, Features, Iraq, John McCain, Politics, President Bush