Obama vows to ‘turn the page’ in Iraq

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Wednesday presented a plan that would include beginning to withdraw troops from Iraq immediately, and took a backhanded swipe at his two main rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.

{mosads}“Conventional thinking in Washington lined up for war,” said Obama, who was not in the Senate when Congress voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2003. “The pundits judged the political winds to be blowing in the direction of the president. Despite — or perhaps because of — how much experience they had in Washington, too many politicians feared looking weak and failed to ask hard questions.”

Obama’s two main rivals for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and then-Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), both voted to give the president the authority to attack.

Obama proposes phased redeployment that would get most U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of next year.

“Let me be clear: There is no military solution in Iraq, and there never was,” Obama said in Clinton, Iowa. “The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year — now.”

Most experts agree that political reconciliation is the key to progress in Iraq, and Obama said the country “needs a new constitutional convention that would include representatives from all levels of Iraqi society.” The senator also advocates that the United Nations “should play a central role in convening and participating in this convention.”

Despite acknowledging the obstacles his policy will face in a divided Senate — not to mention a veto threat — Obama sounded optimistic. “What we can say is that we are ready for something new and something bold and something principled,” he said.

Republicans were quick to criticize the senator's remarks. 

“Today’s speech just serves to highlight the level of Obama’s inexperience,” said an Republican National Committee spokesman. “Hours ago he heard from the top military commander in Iraq that the increase in troops is working to bring down violence, yet he chooses to follow his own interpretations. America needs a leader who will support our troops and listen to the Generals on the ground, not someone who will vote to cut funding just to please the far left of his base.”