Afghanistan 'urgent,' Obama says
Calls Iraq pullout way to boost forces
AMMAN, Jordan - Senator Barack Obama declared yesterday that there is a "growing consensus" in the United States and Iraq for a timeline to withdraw American combat forces, and that the United States now urgently needs to turn its attention to Afghanistan.
"If we responsibly end the war in Iraq, we can strengthen our military, step up our efforts to finish the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and succeed in leaving Iraq to a sovereign government that can take responsibility for its own future," Obama said at his first news conference since touring Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The situation in Afghanistan is perilous and urgent," he said, calling the country the "central front in the war against terrorism."
"We must act now to reverse a deteriorating situation," he said.
The Democratic presidential candidate said he wants a "steady, deliberate" pullout of US troops from Iraq, and said he wouldn't be "rigid and stubborn" about the 16-month timetable he has proposed and would in tervene if a resurgence of ethnic violence in Iraq "presented the possibility of genocide."
Iraqi leaders on Monday generally backed his plan to withdraw US combat troops by 2010. The Iraqi government appears increasingly confident to press for time frames as violence drops and Iraqi security forces expand their roles alongside the 147,000 US forces in the country.
But Obama acknowledged that the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, does not want a timetable for withdrawal.
"He wants to retain as much flexibility as possible," Obama said. "What I emphasized to him was . . . if I were in his shoes, I'd probably feel the same way. But my job as a candidate for president and a potential commander in chief extends beyond Iraq."
Obama said he also needs to take into account the security needs in Afghanistan, the views of the Iraqi government, and the potential domestic uses for the billions of dollars now being spent in Iraq every month.
Obama, a first-term senator, is trying to shed a reputation as a neophyte on international affairs. His joint news conference with his companions for the tour of Iraq and Afghanistan, Senators Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, was at the Amman Citadel, an ancient hilltop ruin that bears evidence of settlements dating to 2000 BC. The skyline of modern-day Amman, cement dwellings and the occasional mosque, formed a made-for-television backdrop.
"The judgments that I've made over the course of the last two years are ones that match up with the reality on the ground," Obama said at the news conference. "Ultimately I think that is where US foreign policy is going to have to go."
Tucker Bounds, spokesman for Republican candidate John McCain, responded, "By admitting that his plan for withdrawal places him at odds with General David Petraeus, Barack Obama has made clear that his goal remains unconditional withdrawal rather than securing the victory our troops have earned."
While he praised US forces for contributing to improved security in Iraq, Obama in the news conference and in a later interview with CBS News avoided any endorsement of the "surge" of 30,000 reinforcements sent last year by President Bush, and pushed by McCain, to help prevent a civil war between minority Sunni Muslims and majority Shi'ites.
Instead, Obama highlighted the role of tribal sheiks who last year began an uprising against insurgents that is credited with uprooting extremist strongholds and helping bring violence around Iraq to its lowest levels in four years.
Before he left Iraq, Obama traveled to a former hotbed of the Sunni insurgency for talks yesterday with tribal leaders who joined the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq and now seek a deeper role in Iraq's political future. He met leaders of the so-called Awakening Council movement in Ramadi, one of the main cities of the western Anbar Province where Al Qaeda once had the upper hand against embattled US and Iraqi troops.
After dinner with Jordanian King Abdullah II, Obama arrived last night in Israel, where he has a full day of meetings today with Israeli officials. He also plans to meet Palestinian leaders in the West Bank before going on to Berlin, Paris, and London to meet with European leaders.
In London yesterday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain will begin a major troop withdrawal from Iraq in early 2009, if security continues to improve and work to train local security forces is completed. Britain, the biggest US ally in Iraq, has about 4,100 troops in the country, based mainly on the outskirts of Basra.
Brown told lawmakers that Britain will keep current numbers in place for several months, but that Britain's role in Iraq will change next year from combat and military training to boosting the economy of the oil-rich southern region. 