Monday, July 14, 2008

Back to the good stuff: Ending the war in Iraq

In a comment on my previous post, I mentioned that Iraq was the line had to cross for people like me to really start losing their minds.

Like I said before, all of the "moves to the center" were less moves to the center as they were restating policies he had mearly attempted to cover up or hide in the closet during the primary. With the exception of the FISA vote, it was less of a move to the center, and more pulling back a little more of the curtain to where he'd been standing all along. He said so himself last week:
“Look, let me talk about the broader issue, this whole notion that I am shifting to the center,” he said. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me.” To this, he adds, parenthetically: “And I must say some of this is my friends on the left” and those in the media.
However, after a non-controversy controversy where he appeared to be changing his position on a pullout, he has come back swinging - forcefully restating the need for us withdraw. He ends his OP-ED:
In this campaign, there are honest differences over Iraq, and we should discuss them with the thoroughness they deserve. Unlike Senator McCain, I would make it absolutely clear that we seek no presence in Iraq similar to our permanent bases in South Korea, and would redeploy our troops out of Iraq and focus on the broader security challenges that we face. But for far too long, those responsible for the greatest strategic blunder in the recent history of American foreign policy have ignored useful debate in favor of making false charges about flip-flops and surrender. It’s not going to work this time.

It’s time to end this war.
Well said. The end is particularly strong. And even though the rest of the op-ed annoys me at times, I'm thrilled that he felt the need to write it. He didn't seem to care too much about the perception that he'd moved to the center on other issues, but the fact that he got that upset enough to write a clarifying op-ed over the perception that he had moved to the center on Iraq is a great sign.

1 comment:

  1. Is this normal? I can't remember other instances of a presidential candidate writing an Op-Ed piece. If it's a new trend, I'm ecstatic.

    ReplyDelete