Word: iraq
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Instead of being distracted from the most pressing threats that we face, I will harness all elements of American power to overcome them. My first order as Commander in Chief will be to end the war in Iraq and refocus our efforts on Afghanistan and our broader security interests. Let me be clear--my plan would not abandon Iraq. It is in our strategic interest to maintain a residual force that will go after al-Qaeda, train Iraqi security forces and protect U.S. interests. But we must recognize that the central front in the war on terror...
Senator McCain said just months ago that "Afghanistan is not in trouble because of our diversion to Iraq." I could not disagree more...
When Barack Obama was preparing to make his first trip to Iraq as part of a congressional delegation in January, 2006, he sought the advice of one of his Senate colleagues about how to make the most of his day and a half there, most of which would be within the 10-mile-wide, U.S.-controlled Green Zone. Seek out some journalists, Senator Jack Reed told him, and ask them to give you an off-the-record assessment of what life there is really like. As Obama later wrote in his book The Audacity of Hope, that session turned...
...know better than Jack Reed how to get beyond the customary Green Zone briefings that visiting VIPs typically get in Iraq. The Rhode Island Senator, a West Point grad and former Army Ranger who now is one of the senior Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been to Iraq 11 times, typically traveling without an entourage into battle zones, where he can talk more frankly to the grunts and mid-level officers. None other than presumptive G.O.P. nominee John McCain told the Providence Journal in 2005: "Jack travels to Iraq, he has friends in Iraq, and because...
...surprise that Obama reached out to Reed again last month, as he was beginning to plan a return trip to Iraq - this time as the presumptive Democratic nominee, running on a promise to get the troops out. Reed and another Army veteran - Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who received two Purple Hearts in Vietnam - will accompany Obama, not only to Iraq, but also to Afghanistan, where Obama has pledged to intensify the miliary effort...