Obama advisor recommends leaving large number of troops in Iraq
Posted by: McQ
First Samantha Power, now Colin Kahl:
A key adviser to Senator Obama's campaign is recommending in a confidential paper that America keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq as of late 2010, a plan at odds with the public pledge of the Illinois senator to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office.
The paper, obtained by The New York Sun, was written by Colin Kahl for the center-left Center for a New American Security. In "Stay on Success: A Policy of Conditional Engagement," Mr. Kahl writes that through negotiations with the Iraqi government "the U.S. should aim to transition to a sustainable over-watch posture (of perhaps 60,000-80,000 forces) by the end of 2010 (although the specific timelines should be the byproduct of negotiations and conditions on the ground)."
Mr. Kahl is the day-to-day coordinator of the Obama campaign's working group on Iraq. A shorter and less detailed version of this paper appeared on the center's Web site as a policy brief.
Kahl and the Obama campaign both deny this represents the campaign's Iraq position. However, it certainly represents a studied and reasonable approach to Iraq that even his senior advisors can't seem to deny.
Mr. Kahl's paper laid out what he called a "middle way" between unlimited engagement in Iraq and complete and rapid disengagement. The approach is contingent, he said, on the progress and willingness of Iraq's major confessional parties in reaching political accommodation.
Of course "rapid disengagement" is the Obama policy at the moment.
So is Obama A) spreading a populist message he knows is wrong and dangerous to the national interest but also knows will help get him elected or B) planning to do something completely different when in office than what he's claiming on the campaign trail, or C) all of the above?
AI
