You Want A Plan, You Got A Plan: Obama Outlines His Exit Strategy For The War In Iraq

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Many critics have argued that senator Barack Obama's greatest weakness heading into November is his lack of military knowledge (unlike McCain, Obama has never been a pilot/POW, and thus is not instantly qualified to manage the United States). So, on the heels of McCain's very own front page report in The New York Times' Sunday edition, Barack Obama wrote in an impassioned letter which headlined the op-ed section of Monday's edition.

In his letter, Obama made several key points, clearly sketching out his solution to the omni-present situation in Iraq. His lack of a concrete answer to this question had been at the center of many of his critics ire. Although brief in his commentary, he was to the point:

"Unlike Senator McCain, I would make it absolutely clear that we seek no presence in Iraq similar to our bases in South Korea (...) It's not going to work this time. It's time to end this war."

But Obama did not suggest a quick or hasty removal of all US military personnel. Instead Obama outlined a tactical approach that would steadily redeploy many troops to areas that have become hotbeds for Al Qaeda activity; namely Afghanistan.

"As I’ve said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 (...) After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia."

As can been seen in these brief excerpts, Obama was more than a little cynical in his commentary toward the current course of action in Iraq. However, and in keeping with a true to date theme following the Obama trail, there was reason for hope.

"The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops."

Obama's letter was rather concise however, and failed to nail down exactly what redeployment would fully entail. Granted, it was only an op-ed submission, which - according to New York Times op-ed submission guidelines - have word limit restrictions. Mind you, in the case of a presidential nominee just months away from an election, it seems likely that The Times would have published his ideas, even if it did go a wee over the word limit.

Without doubt this letter will be analyzed day and night by both sides of the political spectrum, whether to poke holes or to find pearls of wisdom. It is certainly worth a read - thanks to both it's gravity, and it's brevity.

GRMM