If appears his Oneness wants to tinker in U.S. foreign policy before he is elected. He sought to interfere with the current negotiations.
At the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to keep the U.S. military in Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to convince Iraqi leaders in private conversations that the president shouldn’t be allowed to enact the deal without congressional approval.
It appears Obama’s behind the scenes interference was at odds with both the Bush administration’s plans and Obama’s publicly stated position of getting the troops out as soon as possible. Mendacity on this scale belies an arrogance that is mind boggling.
Then there is the question of us being there in the first place. Obama has claimed on multiple occasions that our presence in Iraq is illegal, that is until it started to suit his purposes …
Though Obama claims the US presence is “illegal,” he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the “weakened Bush administration,” Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate.
It appears that winning the election is not enough, Obama wants to sabotage the sitting presidents efforts so he can take credit for the withdrawal later. The appearance of being self serving is not endearing in someone who has claimed to be a selfless public servant.
You’re right, Jacob. It is mind boggling. And possibly the most dangerous precedent to come out of this election cycle. It’s one thing when a has-been like Jimmy Carter does it. It’s quite another when it is done by a viable candidate for the presidency. For that matter I seem to recall during the VEEP debate that Biden admitted to doing something similar in the midst of the Georgia-Russia crisis.
If Obama wins this thing, he will have not a moral foot to stand on if some political opponent does the same to him in 2012. That puts American foreign policy on a very tenuous path, to say the least.