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Obama and Gen Petreaus "agreed to disagree."
NBC's "Today" called Obama's visit to Iraq "picture-perfect." Obama also met with senior U.S. military commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, who gave Obama a helicopter tour of Iraq and a briefing on the situation on the ground. Although their encounter was described as friendly, and photos show the two smiling and shaking hands, observers said Obama and Petreaus "agreed to disagree" about the feasibility of Obama's withdrawal timeline in an "animated" conversation. David Gergen: "I think it was the first -- Barack Obama made the first mistake of his trip, in my judgment, in releasing a statement in which he said exactly what Maliki had said in those conversations. We have a long tradition in this country that we only have one president at a time. He's the commander in chief and the negotiator in chief. I cannot remember a campaign which a rival seeking the presidency has been in a position negotiating a war that's under way with another party outside the country. I think he leaves himself open to the charge tonight that he's meddling, that this is not his role, that he can be the critic, but he's not the negotiator. We have a president who does that. So, I think the underlying facts support him, but I think it would be a real mistake -- and I think it was a mistake -- to get into these conversations and let it be used politically." Posted by: Besoeker 2008-07-23 |
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