Andrea Tantaros, Conservative Commentator and former Press Secretary to the House Republican Conference, and Peter Feld, Democratic Strategist and writer, square off on Obama's plan to end the combat mission in Iraq by August, 2010.
Opinion One
By Andrea Tantaros
President Obama's plan to remove troops from Iraq by 2010 has come under fire from both sides of the aisle. Democrats aren't happy about the 50,000 forces that would be kept behind to advise the Iraqi troops, and the far left is unglued over the news. Republicans want an assurance that Obama will abandon his plans if there is an uptick of violence in the increasingly calm country. The GOP is also less than pleased the Commander-in-Chief is announcing his military strategy to the world. Can't say I blame them. To be fair, it annoyed me when Bush did the same thing.
What is unnerving, however, is that Obama refuses to use the phrase victory in his discussions about the war and rebuffs any insinuation that the surge proved fruitful. While I think Obama is handling the Iraq situation a lot more pragmatically than he is handling the economy, I find it downright disrespectful and borderline delusional that he won't acknowledge the successes of our troops that has brought welcomed peace to a lawless warzone. But that would mean he would annoy the anti-war progressives who are responsible for launching him into the White House. No can do, even if it means getting a little egg on his face for earlier statements.
As Iraq appears to march toward progress, Afghanistan seems to be an emerging issue and one that will cause Obama troubles on both sides of the aisle. The Obama administration plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, even though they “do not anticipate that the Iraq-like ‘surge’ of forces will significantly change the direction of a conflict that has steadily deteriorated over the past seven years." Let me inject an obvious question here: then why are they sending them?
The Afghanistan situation will also likely give us some indication of whether or not Obama opposes surges, or just ones proposed by political challengers. Democrat John Murtha has said the situation in Afghanistan is so challenging that he estimated it would take 600,000 troops to fully squelch violence in the country. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he cannot predict when the United States would be able to leave Afghanistan, but that it won't be soon. Is President Obama simply buying time until he can figure out a strategy? Buying time until a light blub goes off? (Similar to his plan, or lack of, for the credit markets).
From Afghanistan to the economy, Obama needs to start giving us details and the public should be demanding them. If he's not careful, he could end up a wartime President facing a sinking economy. Sound familiar?
Opinion Two
By Peter Feld
At the height of the Vietnam War, Senator George Aiken (R-VT) urged that we "declare victory and go home." This same strategy is the best option President Obama has, and he is on a wise course with his Iraq withdrawal plan.
America's predicament in Iraq is like that of a homeowner who bought a house during the bubble, for way more than its current value, and sees that it has some remaining structural flaws. Ideally, he'd get out as fast as possible, and he certainly doesn’t want to spend much more on it. It’s worth far less than the agent promised back in 2002, his daughter's college tuition is coming due, and he may get laid off. But he doesn't want to lose his whole investment. So he prudently puts in enough to fix it up and sell it – or, in the case of Iraq, allow an exit strategy.
Obama’s plan isn’t perfect: the withdrawal takes longer than he promised during the campaign – though he indicated that he’d adjust to circumstances if he won. And it leaves a larger residual force in place than many of his supporters want.
But Obama is a realist. His problem-solving approach is to listen to experts, from the military in this case, and even his war-hero rival, Senator McCain, believes Obama’s plan has a good chance to get our troops out safely, and gives the Iraqis the best chance to maintain their uncertain democracy and political stability.
FOX News Channel's "Team Washington" is about all things politics. Check back daily for web exclusives from Special Report's Bret Baier, quotes of the day, viewer votes and more.
