One man’s war plan — out in 16 months
From Senator Obama’s website comes his plan for Iraq. He says he will “remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.” The web page also contains some rather odd misstatements of fact regarding the Senator’s biography:
Barack Obama’s Plan — Judgment You Can Trust
As a candidate for the United States Senate in 2002, Obama put his political career on the line to oppose going to war in Iraq, and warned of “an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs, and undetermined consequences.” Obama has been a consistent, principled and vocal opponent of the war in Iraq.
* In 2003 and 2004, he spoke out against the war on the campaign trail;
* In 2005, he called for a phased withdrawal of our troops;
* In 2006, he called for a timetable to remove our troops, a political solution within Iraq, and aggressive diplomacy with all of Iraq’s neighbors;
* In January 2007, he introduced legislation in the Senate to remove all of our combat troops from Iraq by March 2008.
* In September 2007, he laid out a detailed plan for how he will end the war as president.Bringing Our Troops Home
Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.
Whatever the merits or demerits of Senator Obama’s plan, he was not, as his web biography indicates, “a candidate for the United States Senate in 2002.” He was a candidate for the Illinois state senate in that year.
As for the statement that the Senator “put his political career on the line to oppose going to war in Iraq,” Thomas Edsall wrote at the Huffington Post: “In 2002, Obama was a state senator representing one of the most liberal districts in Illinois encompassing Chicago’s lake front, Hyde Park, the University of Chicago and African American neighborhoods in the southern half of the district.” That would clearly look like an anti-war district. Furthermore, at least one source says that Obama ran unopposed in the 2002 election. It is hard to put your political career too much on the line when you run unopposed.
Others have noticed the factual problems with the statements above and attributed them to Obama’s trying to stretch a thin resume into something more than it is. We don’t know about that. It is certainly true that Obama started thinking about a run for the US Senate in 2002, and announced it in 2003. Why the writer gilded the lily is something of a mystery.