Some kind of progress
War critic George Packer in the New Yorker says that Senator Obama needs to shift his position on Iraq, because the realities in that country have changed:
With the general election four months away, Obama’s rhetoric on the topic now seems outdated and out of touch, and the nominee-apparent may have a political problem concerning the very issue that did so much to bring him this far.
Obama’s plan, which was formally laid out last September, called for the remaining combat brigades to be pulled out at a brisk pace of about one per month, along with a strategic shift of resources and attention away from Iraq and toward Afghanistan. At that rate, all combat troops would be withdrawn in sixteen months. In hindsight, it was a mistake — an understandable one, given the nature of the media and of Presidential politics today — for Obama to offer such a specific timetable. In matters of foreign policy, flexibility is a President’s primary defense against surprise.
At the start of 2007, no one in Baghdad would have predicted that blood-soaked neighborhoods would begin returning to life within a year. The improved conditions can be attributed, in increasing order of importance, to President Bush’s surge, the change in military strategy under General David Petraeus, the turning of Sunni tribes against Al Qaeda, the Sadr militia’s unilateral ceasefire, and the great historical luck that brought them all together at the same moment. With the level of violence down, the Iraqi government and Army have begun to show signs of functioning in less sectarian ways.
Probably the most opportune time for Senator Obama to make the switch is after his upcoming trip to the area later this year (and presumably after the Democratic convention). No doubt he will be praised in the MSM for doing a 180 on the issue that formed the initial basis of his presidential run.