Obama's Plan for Iraq

I heard an interview with Barack Obama where he talked about his Iraq plan. I've not read the speech, but it seems to call for a redeployment of troops by the end of 2008 (but he wouldn't become President until 2009) and a focus on diplomacy -- talking with the "enemy."
It's a beginning point, but until 2009 there's little that ultimately can be done. The Democrats don't have the votes to override a Bush veto, and Bush will likely resist such a plan to the end of his days in office. But here is his plan, as laid out by him in an email from the campaign:

The time to end this war is now.

Five years ago, President Bush made his case for war at the United Nations. He was wrong.

But conventional thinking in Washington lined up for war. Too many politicians feared looking weak and failed to ask hard questions. Too many took the President at his word instead of reading the intelligence for themselves. Congress gave the President the authority to go to war, and our only opportunity to stop the war was lost.

I made a different judgment. I opposed this war from the beginning. I opposed the war in 2002. I opposed it in 2003. I opposed it in 2004. I opposed it in 2005. I opposed it in 2006. And I introduced a plan this January to remove all of our combat brigades by March 2008.

My plan for turning the page on Iraq is clear:

  • remove our combat troops from Iraq’s civil war by the end of 2008
  • take a new approach to press for reconciliation within Iraq
  • escalate our diplomacy with all of Iraq’s neighbors and the United Nations
  • confront the human costs of this war directly with increased humanitarian aid

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