Iraq Confidential: The Paper Obama Probably Doesn’t Want You to See
By SusanUnPC on April 4, 2008 at 1:27 PM in Barack Obama, Iraq
Via MSNBC First Read:
… The New York Sun: “A key adviser to Senator Obama’s campaign is recommending in a confidential paper that America keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq as of late 2010, a plan at odds with the public pledge of the Illinois senator to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office.”
“The paper, obtained by The New York Sun, was written by Colin Kahl for the center-left Center for a New American Security. In ‘Stay on Success: A Policy of Conditional Engagement,’ Mr. Kahl writes that through negotiations with the Iraqi government ‘the U.S. should aim to transition to a sustainable over-watch posture (of perhaps 60,000–80,000 forces) by the end of 2010 (although the specific timelines should be the byproduct of negotiations and conditions on the ground).’”
“Mr. Kahl is the day-to-day coordinator of the Obama campaign’s working group on Iraq. A shorter and less detailed version of this paper appeared on the center’s Web site as a policy brief. …
The New York Sun quote concludes:
The campaign has not publicly discussed the size of such a force in the past.
I bet not.
I know so many individuals — both friends and acquaintances — who say that it is Obama’s stand on Iraq, and his early speech in 2002, that compelled them to support Barack Obama.
Don’t you wonder how many of those Obama supporters know about the real story behind Obama’s speech? This story?
The Staged Iraq War Speech & More “Creative” Embellishments
Yes. That famed speech you hear in Obama’s ads is a staged re-creation.
From the NPR story aired on March 25, 2008, “Obama Still Stumps on 2002 Anti-War Declaration,” (audio available) linked in our No Quarter report:
[A]t nearly every campaign rally in his run for the presidency, Obama cites the speech he delivered on that day, in which he came out strongly against the Bush administration on Iraq.
[...]
On the campaign trail, Obama promotes his 2002 speech in steady and relentless fashion.
[...]
Obama counters that the speech demonstrated his sound judgment, and that it showed the kind of political courage a president needs. He says it was risky to deliver such a speech barely a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, at a time when the president was riding high in the polls.
“My objections to the war in Iraq were not simply a speech,” Obama said. “I was in the midst of a U.S. Senate campaign. It was a high-stakes campaign. I was one of the most vocal opponents of the war.” (Obama delivered the speech in October 2002; he did not officially declare his candidacy for the U.S. Senate until January).
[...]
Even in this era of YouTube and camera phones, a recording of Obama’s speech is all but impossible to find. The Obama campaign has gone so far as to re-create portions of the speech for a television ad, with the candidate re-reading the text, with audience sound effects.
[...]
So, just how much attention did the speech attract?
Bill Glauber, who covered the rally for the Chicago Tribune, says he didn’t even quote Obama.
“I guess other media was there,” Glauber says, “but we didn’t quote Barack Obama at his famous anti-war speech. He was not the main guy.”
Glauber says that he did not even mention Obama in his newspaper article on the rally and instead focused on the rally’s other speaker, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
[...]
Obama cites the speech as an example of his political courage, but David Mendell, author of Obama: From Promise to Power, says the address was not necessarily a risky move.
“I still don’t think it was an inordinate risk here in Illinois, where you have a very blue-state crowd,” Mendell said, adding, “I might take issue with just how risky it was.”
And, now, you know the rest of the story.
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If you missed it, be sure to read about MORE of Obama’s “embellishments” here:
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
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