RNC: Obama Unbelievable on Iraq

Obama Claims He Will Listen to Commanders on the Ground, But Previously Said
He Would Set the Mission and Has Made No Effort to Hear Their Views

WASHINGTON, June 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was issued today
by the Republican National Committee:

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080519/RNCLOGO )

Today, Obama Claimed That He Would Be Open To Listening To Commanders On The
Ground And What They Advised Regarding Withdrawal From Iraq:

Obama Told CNN's Candy Crowley That He Was Open To "Facts And To Reason" With
Regard To His Plan For Withdrawal From Iraq. Crowley: "You have said you want
to go back to Iraq." Obama: "Yeah." Crowley: "See what the situation is on the
ground. Is there nothing that they could show you or that General Petraeus
could tell you that would move you from wanting to immediately begin removing
U.S. troops?" Obama: "Well, you know, I never say there's nothing or never or
no way in which I'd change my mind. Obviously, I'm open to the facts and to
reason. And there's no doubt that we've seen significant improvements in
security on the ground in Iraq." (CNN's "The Situation Room," 6/5/08)

But Previously, Obama Committed To Removing Troops From Iraq Regardless Of
What Military Commanders Advised:

Obama Committed To Withdrawing Troops From Iraq Regardless Of The Advice He
Received From Commanders On The Ground. ABC's Charles Gibson: "And, Senator
Obama, your campaign manager, David Plouffe, said, 'When he is' -- this is
talking about you - 'When he is elected president, we will be out of Iraq in
16 months at the most. There should be no confusion about that.' So you'd give
the same rock-hard pledge, that no matter what the military commanders said,
you would give the order to bring them home?" Obama: "Because the
commander-in-chief sets the mission, Charlie. That's not the role of the
generals. And one of the things that's been interesting a out the president's
approach lately has been to say, 'Well, I'm just taking cues from General
Petraeus.' Well, the president sets the mission. The general and our troops
carry out that mission." (Sen. Barack Obama, Democrat Presidential Candidate
Debate, Philadelphia, PA, 4/16/08)

Obama Said As Commander-In-Chief, It Would Be His Job To "Set The Mission" In
Iraq. Obama: "I will listen to General Petraeus given the experience that he
has accumulated over the last several years. It would be stupid of me to
ignore what he has to say. But it is my job as president, it would be my job
as commander in chief, to set the mission, to make the strategic decisions in
light of the problems that we're having in Afghanistan, in light of the
problems that we are having in Pakistan, the fact that Al Qaida is
strengthening, as our national intelligence estimates have indicated, since
2001." (Fox's "Fox News Sunday," 4/27/08)

Obama Has Made No Effort To Meet One-On-One With Gen. David Petraeus:

Obama Confirmed That He Has Never Attempted To Meet With Gen. Petraeus.
Question: "He's saying outside of those meetings on the Hill, you would not
set up your own meetings with General Petraeus, never attempted to meet with
him?" Obama: "And I haven't - look, it's just a flippant comment, it's not
designed to actually talk about substance. It's a political comment that
doesn't get anywhere." (Sen. Barack Obama, Press Conference, 5/28/08)

Obama Has Not Met With Troops Or Commanders On The Ground In IraqIn Over Two
Years:

Obama Was In Iraq For Two Days In 2006."Obama ... met with U.S. Ambassador
Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Saturday [January 6,
2006]. He said before his two-day trip to Iraq that he wanted to ask U.S.
commanders what a realistic time frame was for bringing troops home." (Jason
Straziuso, "Obama Says Minorities Must Be More Involved I n Iraq's
Government," The Associated Press, 1/7/06)

It Has Been 879 Days Since Obama Visited Troops And Commanders In Iraq. (GOP
Website, www.gop.com, Accessed 5/29/08)

Obama Communications Director Robert Gibbs Said That Obama Would Go To Iraq To
See How He Can Withdraw Our Troops:

Gibbs Said That Obama Was Considering A Trip To Iraq To See How He Could Begin
Removing Troops. MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski: "And, Robert, is your candidate - I
mean, just this whole Iraq thing is now being revitalized a bit because of the
book. But is your candidate going to go to Iraq? Is that in the plans?" Gibbs:
"Well, as he said yesterday Mika, it's under discussion about going overseas
and going to Iraq t1:country-region>sometime between now and the campaign.
You know, I don't think we'll be taking that trip with John McCain because as
Senator Obama said yesterday, the work that the men and women in our military
are doing over there is just far too important for them to be props in some
sort of political stunt or photo-op. You know, what they're doing over there
is separated from their families, giving for their country. It's truly, truly
amazing, and I think we would want to go over there and talk to them and see
what sort of difficulties they're facing and see how it is that we can begin
to carefully remove them and carefully bring them back to their families and
bring them back to the United States." (MSNBC's "Morning Joe," 5/29/08)

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SOURCE Republican National Committee

Republican National Committee, +1-202-863-8500