Kansas City, Mo. – Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday that the recent increase in American troops in Iraq may have helped tamp down violence, but he insisted that “all of our top military commanders recognize that there is no military solution in Iraq,” and U.S. forces should be redeployed soon.
The Illinois senator spoke at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention a day after Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton made similar comments. She said the tactics of the short-term troop increase were working, but political progress did not seem to be in sight and the U.S. should begin bringing some troops home.
Later Tuesday, former Sen. Fred Thomp son, who is expected to make a decision soon on whether he will join the Republican race, told the veterans that the U.S. must rebuild its military to fight global terrorism because leaders “took a holiday” in the 1990s after the end of the Cold War.
“Some people in this country think if we can pull out of Iraq, our problems will be over,” Thompson said. “You and I know better than that.”
Obama said earlier in a telephone briefing, “If we put 30,000 additional troops into Baghdad, it will quell some of the violence short-term. I don’t think there is any doubt about that.” But that won’t solve Iraq’s critical political problems, he said.
“No military surge can succeed without political reconciliation and a surge of diplomacy in Iraq and the region,” Obama told the veterans. “Iraq’s leaders are not reconciling. They are not achieving political benchmarks. The only thing they seem to have agreed on is to take a vacation.”
He concluded, “That is why I have pushed for a careful and responsible redeployment of troops engaged in combat operations out of Iraq, joined with direct and sustained diplomacy in the region.”
A day earlier, Clinton, too, told the vets that new tactics have brought some success against insurgents, particularly in Iraq’s Anbar province.
“It’s working. We’re just years too late in changing our tactics,” she said. “We can’t ever let that happen again.”
As for the broader situation in Iraq, she said, “I do not think the Iraqis are ready to do what they have to do for themselves yet.”
Like Sen. John McCain, who is seeking the GOP nomination and spoke to the vets on Monday, Thompson said the United States should not pull out of Iraq.
In asserting that U.S. leaders were lax after the end of the Cold War, the former Tennessee senator said, “Now we’re stretched too thin, and our equipment is wearing out.”
President Bush addresses the group today and plans to argue that the troop buildup is bringing former Sunni insurgents into the fight against al-Qaeda and clearing terrorists out of heavily populated areas.
VFW members at the convention applauded most vigorously when the candidates talked about improving government programs for veterans.
Poor treatment of wounded troops and veterans has gotten substantial attention in recent months.
Obama said, “My secretary of veterans affairs will be just as important as my secretary of defense. No more shortfalls; it’s time to fully fund the VA medical center. No more delays; it’s time to pass on-time VA budgets each and every year. No more means testing; it’s time to allow all veterans back into the VA.” Thompson, too, touched on that subject.
“Our obligation to our veterans doesn’t end when they leave the battlefield,” he said. “It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do.”
The hall in which the VFW is meeting seats almost 6,000. It has been half full for the candidates’ speeches.
Other Democratic rivals took issue with Clinton’s comments from a day earlier.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said in a statement distributed by his campaign: “The fact is the surge is not working. I do not give President Bush the same credit on Iraq that Hillary does. … The improvement is only in comparison to the previous two months which were horrible.”
