BARACK OBAMA TALKS TO U.S. COMMANDERS AND IRAQI OFFICIALS AFTER STOPS IN AFGHANISTAN0 comments

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Democratic Barack Obama spoke to U.S. Commanders and Iraqi officials in Iraq after he was criticized  by Republican nominee John McCain for not visiting the region. Obama arrived in Iraq after stops in Afghanistan. The senator has been vocal about his opposition to the war in Iraq. Barack Obama met with Iraqi Prime Minister  Nouri al-Maliki but the discussion was not about troop withdrawal.   

Following criticism from Republican presidential candidate John
McCain that his rival had not spent enough time in Iraq, Democratic
candidate Barack Obama made his second trip to Iraq Monday, meeting
with American military commanders and upper-level Iraqi officials.
      

Although Senator Obama has publicly stated he
will withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office if he
wins, he did not discuss this plan with Iraqi officials. During a
meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the senator emphasized
that he would do his best to guarantee the security of Iraq without
specifically commenting on plans to withdraw US forces, says Naseer
al-Ani, a senior official in President Talabani’s office who was
present for the meeting.

Although
Obama’s and Senator McCain’s proposals for Iraq appear quite different
– McCain has commented that US troops could be in Iraq for the next
hundred years, compared with Obama’s 16-month plan – most Iraqi
politicians say they are not taking sides in the election.

"The situation in Iraq is working in a good way,
and this good situation is connected to the Iraqis more than the
Americans. Any new American president will be looking to make the
situation in Iraq better," says parliamentarian Sheikh Hameed Mullaa, a
Shiite and member of the Iraqi Islamic Supreme Council.
      

Obama’s trip comes after a controversy stirred
this weekend when a German magazine quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki as saying that he agreed with Obama’s 16-month timetable. Mr.
Maliki’s office said his words had not been translated correctly. The
prime minister has called for a withdrawal of American troops, but
given no dates.

A longtime critic of the Iraq war, Obama arrives in Iraq after a visit to Afghanistan, where he called for the US to invest more troops and more financial resources.source 

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