Good Morning, Iraq
08 April 2008 5:30 am by Taylor Marsh
DemocracyArsenal will be liveblogging The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with General Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, who will be testifying about the situation in Iraq. They’re as good as you get. C-SPAN will stream it online, beginning at 9:30 a.m. eastern time.
Here’s your Iraq reading for the morning.
A confidential draft agreement covering the future of US forces in Iraq, passed to the Guardian, shows that provision is being made for an open-ended military presence in the country.
The draft strategic framework agreement between the US and Iraqi governments, dated March 7 and marked “secret” and “sensitive”, is intended to replace the existing UN mandate and authorises the US to “conduct military operations in Iraq and to detain individuals when necessary for imperative reasons of security” without time limit. … ..
Obviously, there’s a reason John McCain is talking about a Korea-like commitment. To say he’s read in on the situation is an understatement. It pays to be the Republican nominee, with your party commanding the White House. It also doesn’t hurt when you’re the senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. McCain will milk this for all it’s worth.
No doubt, everyone will be listening to candidates McCain, Clinton and Obama on their
questioning. I’ve said this before, though no one likes hearing it, but I think the Democrats have lost their advantage on Iraq. I know the American people want to get out. However, the Democrats yielded to Bush at every turn, even after being elected in 2006 on a mandate to get us out of Iraq. Promises won’t go down as easily now. It’s a real problem for whomever is our nominee. I say this believing that McCain is wrong on Iraq, but realizing that his biography carries him an awfully long way, even though it doesn’t mean he’ll make a good leader for the times. That is unless you like a permanent presence in Iraq for as far as the mind can imagine.
Apropros of the topic:
Last night at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Barack Obama took a question
on what he’s looking for in a running mate. "I would like somebody who
knows about a bunch of stuff that I’m not as expert on," he said, and
then he was off and running. "I think a lot of people assume that might
be some sort of military thing to make me look more Commander-in-Chief-like.
Ironically, this is an area–foreign policy is the area where I am probably
most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator
Clinton or Senator McCain."
Open thread.
