Iraq Withdrawal Goes Under the Bus

Gateway Pundit, this morning writes that despite Obama's promises to withdraw US forces from Iraq, he has made no definite deadline for withdrawing all forces from Iraq. The status of forces agreement with Iraq mandates complete withdrawal by the end of 2011, but Obama has been unclear on the size and length of deployment for the residual forces. From his campaign website (I've taken to getting screen shots instead of just quotes, because apparently the Obama policy is very fluid on nearly every issue);

This is what he said in response to McCain back in July;

The New York Times makes his excuses for him now;

That status-of-forces agreement remains subject to change, by mutual agreement, and Army planners acknowledge privately that they are examining projections that could see the number of Americans hovering between 30,000 and 50,000 — and some say as high as 70,000 — for a substantial time even beyond 2011.

As American combat forces decline in numbers and more provinces are turned over to Iraqi control, these military planners say, Iraqi security forces will remain reliant on significant numbers of Americans for training, supplies, logistics, intelligence and transportation for a long time to come.

Um, did Obama say that during the campaign? Is he even saying that now? Obama talked with al-Maliki on the phone today and pledged to begin the withdrawal in June completed by December 2011;

However, there's no mention of this residual force. As Gateway Pundit says, Obama is making the right decision - I'm not complaining about the decision to keep forces there at all - however, how is this different from what John McCain proposed to do? So far we've watched Obama make the correct decisions on gays in the military, the war on terror, the economy and countless other issues - the only thing he hasn't done is demonstrate how he was a better choice than McCain. Nor have his supporters made a clear case of why they voted for Obama instead of McCain - other than wanting to be part of history.