Obama's views resonate in Iraq

Obama is scheduled to speak to U.S. journalists today in Amman, Jordan, but has so far spent little time talking to the media. In Baghdad on Monday, he did not stop to take questions from a gauntlet of Iraqi and Western journalists waiting at Maliki's compound. He said without breaking stride that the meeting was "constructive" and that he would discuss it later.

In Washington, the Iraqi spokesman's statement seemed to startle officials. The previous day, Dabbagh had tried to discredit an interview published in a German magazine in which Maliki seemed to endorse Obama's plan.

The new statement Monday suggested that the Iraqi government and Obama are not far apart in their views of how long a drawdown might take.

"We cannot give any timetable other than that the Iraqi government believes that the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal of the forces," Dabbagh told reporters.

His statement came only days after Bush and Maliki announced on Friday that they would work on a "general time horizon" for withdrawing U.S. combat troops, a phrase that implies flexibility.

Officials in both countries have underlined that the U.S. can reduce its presence in Iraq only if security continues to improve.

"They agreed -- the president and the prime minister and their negotiators -- that any decision should be based on conditions, should not be arbitrary, and it should not tie the hands of our commanders," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday.

McCain's campaign also said any withdrawal plan should be linked to conditions in Iraq.

He has said it would be "reckless" to pull U.S. troops from Iraq in the 16-month time frame envisioned by his rival.

"That's an artificial date," said McCain foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann on Monday, "and it is completely ignorant of conditions on the ground and the effect that it would have both on our ability to withdraw as well as the ability to have sustainable security in Iraq in the aftermath."

McCain, speaking at the Bush home in Maine, criticized Obama for opposing the "surge" of 28,500 additional U.S. troops into Iraq last year.

"The fact is, if we had done what Sen. Obama wanted to do, we would have lost and we would have faced a wider war, and we would have had greater problems in Afghanistan. . . . He has been completely wrong on that issue," McCain said.