Iraqi leaders support U.S. withdrawal in 2010
The timing matches that suggested by Obama, who meets with Prime Minister Maliki in Baghdad under heavy security. John McCain, campaigning in Maine, again attacks Obama's resistance to troops 'surge.'
BAGHDAD — Iraqi leaders have told Barack Obama that they hope U.S. combat troops can be out of Iraq by the end of 2010, a government spokesman said today, outlining a time frame similar to one favored by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Obama's visit here, the third stop on a weeklong tour designed to burnish his foreign policy credentials in his race against Republican John McCain, came amid tight security.
Iraqi spokesman Ali Dabbagh made the remark about removing U.S. troops following a meeting among Obama, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and other officials in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.
The statement added another twist to the controversy surrounding a weekend interview with a German magazine in which Maliki appeared to endorse Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. combat troops within 16 months of becoming president. Dabbagh later cast doubt on the account published in Der Spiegel, saying Maliki's comments had been "misunderstood and mistranslated."
Obama, who did not take questions from Iraqi and Western journalists waiting at Maliki's compound, said, without breaking stride as he left, that he had a "constructive" meeting and would discuss it later.
Obama also met today with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad and was briefed by senior U.S., British and Iraqi commanders at an air base outside the southern oil hub of Basra. He was accompanied by Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
Obama has argued that the Bush administration's "single-minded" focus on Iraq has distracted the United States from the more urgent threat of a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, which he visited for the first time over the weekend.
Obama wants to scale back the U.S. presence in Iraq and send two additional brigades to Afghanistan, although he has said he would fine-tune his plans based on the advice he receives from military leaders.
Obama's foray into international politics is being heavily covered by the media. His opponent has emphasized his foreign policy experience and said it gave him an edge over the Illinois senator.
McCain, campaigned today in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he again attacked Obama for opposing the sharp increase in U.S. troops known as the surge.
With former President George H.W. Bush at his side, McCain told reporters on the oceanfront lawn of the Bush compound that the United States would have lost the Iraq war if commanders had adopted Obama's original time line for withdrawing troops.
