WASHINGTON — In a grinding first full day as president, Barack Obama moved decisively to distance himself from the previous administration, pushing top military leaders for a plan to withdraw combat troops from Iraq and issuing a string of orders to make government more open.
The new president signaled his desire to wade into the Mideast conflict, conferring by telephone with the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. He also laid the groundwork for fulfilling his campaign pledge to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Obama used Day One as well to signal his commitment to a central campaign promise: upending the way Washington does business. He announced tough new restrictions on lobbying activity.
"This is big," said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel of the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research institute at George Washington University that has challenged Bush administration policies on the release of information. "No president has done so much on the first day in office to make his administration transparent."
The 44th president arrived at the Oval Office at 8:35 a.m., savoring the moment alone as he read a note left by his predecessor in an envelope marked "To: #44 from #43."
But that was about the only quiet moment he had.
In an afternoon meeting with commanders running the war in Iraq, Obama said, he asked them to "engage in additional planning necessary to execute a responsible military drawdown."
His language was less forceful than an often-repeated campaign promise that he would instruct the Pentagon that it had a "new mission in Iraq" -- ending the war and bringing all combat forces home within 16 months.
But Obama's goal, said officials briefed on the meeting, remains the same: accelerating the troop withdrawal. The officials, who requested anonymity when discussing administration strategy, said the exchange was amicable.
The president and military leaders are not far apart in their respective timetables. Obama has called for a withdrawal of all combat forces by mid-2010. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has crafted a plan for a more conservative drawdown, but one that would still remove most forces well before the end of 2011. In an agreement approved by Iraqi lawmakers, the U.S. has pledged to remove all military forces by that date.
