Obama: Not Ready.
17 September 2008I know his smooth talk will have all of the left blogosphere shrugging their collective shoulders and asking, “So what?” but those who have not been seduced into believing Obama can do no wrong should be absolutely disgusted by such immature and arrogant behavior. Obama is NOT the sitting president although he plays one on TV. He shows an utter lack of respect for the man who IS the sitting president and who will be the sitting president until January.
IN Monday’s Post, I discussed how Barack Obama, during his July trip, had asked Iraqi leaders not to finalize an agreement vital to the future of US forces in Iraq – and how the effect of such a delay would be to postpone the departure of the US from Iraq beyond the time Obama himself calls for.
The Obama campaign has objected. While its statement says my article was “filled with distortions,” the rebuttal actually centers on a technical point: the differences between two Iraqi-US accords under negotiation – the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA, to set rules governing US military personnel in Iraq) and the Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA, to settle the legal basis for the US military presence in Iraq in the months and years ahead).
The Obama camp says I confused the two. It continues: “On the Status of Forces Agreement, Sen. Obama has always said he hoped that the US and Iraq would complete it – but if they did not, the option of extending the UN mandate should be considered.
“As to the Strategic Framework Agreement, Sen. Obama has consistently said that any security arrangements that outlast this administration should have the backing of the US Congress – especially given the fact that the Iraqi parliament will have the opportunity to vote on it.”
If there is any confusion, it’s in Obama’s position – for the two agreements are interlinked: You can’t have any US military presence under one agreement without having settled the other accord. (Thus, in US-Iraqi talks, the aim is a comprehensive agreement that covers both SOFA and SFA.)
And the claim that Obama only wanted the Strategic Framework Agreement delayed until a new administration takes office, and had no objection to a speedy conclusion of a Status of Forces Agreement, is simply untrue.
It is the job of the SITTING president, not the president-in-waiting, to negotiate treaties and agreements. In making the case that Congress should have final approval, Obama tries to gloss over the fact that it is the president who hammers the details out and then presents it to Congress. Obama did, by his own admission, attempt to subvert this process.
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