From the ArcaMax Publishing, Politics Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/politics/s-372964-200021
FARGO, N.D. (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., rejected claims
Thursday that he has changed his position on withdrawing U.S. combat
troops from Iraq.
Reacting to media reports -- including a report Thursday in The
Washington Post -- suggesting he had backtracked on a promise to
withdraw combat troops within 16 months of taking office, Obama told
reporters in Fargo, N.D., what he is saying now is no different from
what he said on the subject during the Democratic primary campaign.
"I have always said, and again you can take a look at the language,
that as commander in chief I would always reserve the right to do
what's best in America's national interests," Obama said in the second
of two news conferences in Fargo Thursday. "And if it turned out, for
example, that we had to in certain months slow the pace because of the
safety of American troops in terms of getting combat troops out, of
course we would take that into account."
Obama said he intends to withdraw combat troops in 16 months "at a
pace of one to two brigades per month."
Maintaining a long-term occupation in Iraq would be a "strategic
error," Obama said, because conditions are worsening in Afghanistan,
al-Qaida has regrouped in Iraq and the Iraq war is costing $10 billion
to $12 billion each month "that we desperately need here at home."