Robert Schlesinger

Obama Deserves Benefit of the Doubt on Iraq Troop Withdrawal

By

February 25, 2009 RSS Feed Print
  • Comment (7)

Related Articles

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

President Obama will, reportedly, soon announce an Iraq withdrawal plan that will get most U.S. troops out of the Middle Eastern quagmire in 18 months (19 months, if you date it from his inauguration). "Most" is a critical and elastic word here: 30,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops will apparently remain that country a bit longer.

There are warnings of grumbling from the left ends of the grassroots: Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination in no small part because of the Iraq war and he promised to get our troops out within 16 months.

Everyone needs to take a deep breath and give the president some room on this one.

We did not elect a plan in November, we elected a man. He had a plan for Iraq, but as importantly he had demonstrated good judgment on Iraq and a host of other issues. Remember: Judgment was the trump over inexperience. So let him judge.

Even the fiercest critics of the Iraq war owe Obama this: Let him announce his plan and then let him make the case for it. By all means ask tough questions. But hold your political fire: At this point he still deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Let the policy play out and see what happens. If it's a bad call we've got plenty of time to turn on Obama and excoriate him for grievous errors. But for right now let's let him do the job for which he was elected.

On Facebook? You can keep up with Thomas Jefferson Street blog postings through Facebook's Networked Blogs.

Tags:
Iraq

Reader Comments Read all comments (7)

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

Nice story as for me. It would be great to read something more concerning that matter. Thanks for sharing this data.

MarkRight of AL 11:23PM March 09, 2010

Obama, the socialist, became president of the United States primarily as a result of a hate vote against Bush. Hate doesn't work. Obama, the liberal senator will now try to push his socialistic agenda. We have gotten ourselves into a areal mess. If you voted for Obama, you will only have yourself to blame at a later date when your taxes are through the roof, you are supporting the lazy and your 401K is worthless.

The real problem is that he told us what he was going to do before we elected him and he will do what is required to accomplish his socialistic goals. He being elected only confirms the fact that Americans have reached the height of stupidity and laziness. We are on the road to becoming a huge welfare state. To think that this man was elected as the great savior of this once great country is appalling.

Thank yourself for the havoc this man will reap on America.

Tom of CA 9:58AM February 27, 2009

You know Bob, now that you are officially dumber than a rock, nothing amazes me.

R.L. of CO should realise the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. Sean Penn's dad sympathized with the German cause until Hitler began to exterminate Jews. I wonder if being Jewish had anything to do with that? You'd think daddy would have had a talk with his boy. I am of the persuasion who think Barry Soetoro will lead us into World War III. But hey, let's give him the benefit of a doubt. The problem I have is that more people than ever have been duped like Hitler to believe "Darwins" theories on "the preservation of favored races". It ought to be quite interesting to see if they decide to lob some of the "Big" bombs we now have. One third of mankind is prophesied to be killed, but you would have to open-minded enough to read the Bible to know that. Two billion although is a large number don't you think?

Jeff of WI 12:05AM February 27, 2009

Robert Schlesinger

Robert Schlesinger

Robert Schlesinger is managing editor for opinion at U.S. News and World Report, overseeing all opinion editorial content. He is the author of "White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters." E-mail him at rschlesinger@usnews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @rschles.

advertisement

Cartoons

Robert Schlesinger

An End to the NRA’s Angry Swagger

Polls show that overwhelming majorities of Americans, and even of NRA members, favor universal background checks.

Mary Kate Cary

Washington’s Toxic Stew

President Obama's burgeoning problems affect more than this week’s three scandals.

Latest Videos

advertisement