President Obama's plan for Iraq

I was listening to NPR this morning between 10:30 and 11:00, while I was on my way to an interview with Belle Tire. They had a Democratic Congressman on and some other professors and anti-war folk. The majority of them were voicing disappointment in Obama's three year plan for withdrawal. I guess this is following the time-line and policy that Bush had agreed on with Nouri al-Maliki and the Iraqi authority.

I haven't read or heard any Obama's speech yet, but I hear it boils down to a portion of troops back home in one and two years with the remainder coming home in three years. FOX News website gives these numbers "Now the president announced his plan today to end combat operations in Iraq on August 31, 2010, but he will leave 30 to 50,000 troops on the ground until the end of 2011."

So, many people are up in arms about The President changing the course from what he campaigned on with respect to an immediate withdrawal of US Forces. I believe that his tone about how and when we leave Iraq (still leaving behind security/peace keeping forces) has changed because he is being forced to look at the conflict through new lenses. As a Senator, Obama, did have access to much information and testimonies of what is going on in Iraq, but it didn't include the security and intelligence briefings that he now reads with his morning coffee.

I believe that he is looking at a different story than he knew before Jan. 2009 and I believe that the new information that he needs to account for includes Iraqi stability and possible power vacuums and regional or civil war. Congressman, journalists, and the average American all seem to forget that the President's decisions come in light of very crucial information.

I also believe that Obama is wise to listen to the Generals and Commanders that are responsible for the American soldiers in Iraq, and responsible for the end result to this war. General Petraeus' opinion should be one of the top opinions that Obama considers when writing up a plan to leave Iraq in the hands of its people.

Included in the discussion on NPR was a Democratic Congressman who repeatedly call Operation Iraq Freedom a "war of lies" and he strongly attacked the reasoning for the war. That is honestly something that I am sick of hearing about. Whether or not the war was justified should bear no weight on how we leave it in the future. This needs to move from a historical study of the Bush administration to an effective strategy to build Iraq to stand on its own two feet once again. We should not leave until those two feet are able to defend themselves and rule with a strong and just government.