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Obama panders too. You should listen to a speech of him talking to anti-war crowds, then listen to a speech of him talking to the general public or to pro-war crowds. If that isn't obvious pandering, I don't know what is. Obama goes with whatever is popular on Iraq, and he also voted against a timeline for troop withdrawl. Do you think he did that because of political expediency or because of a committment to the constitution? (LOL)
Here's some rather interesting quotes by Mr. Obama. These are excerpts from an interview he participated in. Questions that were asked of him are marked with a "Q." His replies are marked with "A". These are just a few of his comments regarding the Iraq War & the Middle East in general.
"Q: You're in favor of keeping troops in Iraq. How long?
A: The War on Terror has to be vigorously fought. Where we part company is how to fight it, because Afghanistan in fact was not a preemptive war, it was a war launched directly against those who were responsible for 9/11. Iraq was a preemptive war based on faulty evidence-and I say that not in hindsight, or Monday-morning quarterbacking. Six months before the war was launched, I questioned the evidence that would lead to us being there. Now, us having gone in there, we have a deep national security interest in making certain that Iraq is stable. If not, not only are we going to have a humanitarian crisis, we are also going to have a huge national security problem on our hands-because, ironically, it has become a hotbed of terrorists as a consequence, in part, of our incursion there. In terms of timetable, I'm not somebody who can say with certainty that a year from now or six months from now we're going to be able to pull down troops."
-Barack Obama
"Q: Afghanistan has just conducted the first elections in its 5,000-year history. They appear to have gone very well-at least, up to this point. Is that not a hopeful sign for Iraq, and for the elections that we may be seeing there in January?
A: It is an absolutely hopeful sign for the people of Afghanistan. As I have stated unequivocally, I have always thought that we did the right thing in Afghanistan. My only concerns with respect to Afghanistan was that we diverted our attention from Afghanistan in terms of moving into Iraq, and I think would could have done a better job of stabilizing that country than we have in providing assistance to the Afghani people. All of us should be rooting for the Afghani people & making sure that we are providing them the support to make things happen. With respect to Iraq, it's going to be a tougher play. I don't think any of us should be rooting for failure in Iraq at this point. This is no longer Bush's war, this is our war, and we all have a stake in it."
-Barack Obama
"I would have voted not to authorize the president to go to war given the facts as I saw them at that time. But, as I said, I wasn't there and what is absolutely clear as we move forward is that if we don't have a change in tone & a change in administration, I think we're going to have trouble making sure that our troops are secure and that we succeed in Iraq."
-Barack Obama
"[The US should] use American moral authority and credibility to help achieve Middle East peace. Our first and immutable commitment must be to the security of Israel, our only true ally in the Middle East and the only democracy. We must be consistent and we must include the EU and the Arab States in pressing for reforms within the Palestinian community."
-Barack Obama
BARACK OBAMA VOTE ON TIMETABLE FOR TROOP WITHDRAWL: NAY
(A 'yea' vote would support the bill that would have established a timetable for troop withdrawl between the passage of the legislation, and the year 2007.)