Did Obama Try To Interfere With US-Iraqi Negotiations?

That's the claim of the Iraqi Foreign Minister according to Amir Taheri in his NY Post column.

While campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."

Now as much as I dislike Obama, I think we need to reserve judgment on this before saying or doing anything rash. Things like indicting Obama under the Logan Act for example.

Remember, this isn’t the first time Zebari has gone after Obama publicly. There could be a lot of things going on from a simple misunderstanding to a deep game involving domestic Iraqi politics. Remember that Prime Minister Maliki sounded pretty pro-Obama after their visit. Perhaps this is payback to even things up or a reflection of an internal split among Iraqi leaders on who they'd rather see win the US election.

Let’s be honest though, unless you are a member of the Cult of Obama, it’s pretty clear he’d rather win an election than a war that might further US interests. Because of that, I can't say it's entirely out of the realm of possibility. It's all too possible that the man who parades around the country with his own presidential trappings (including his own ‘presidential’ seal and a plane dubbed O-Force One) might, from time to time, forget he is a mere Senator and a damn junior one at that.

It's important that our friends in the press question Obama about this (don’t laugh, it could happen). After all if we’ve learned anything from the last few weeks is that all questions must be on the table. Questions like, what are the criminal penalties for violating the Logan Act anyway?

...Just to be clear, I'm joking about the Logan Act stuff. I'm under no illusions that he would be prosecuted or even investigated. Still, this is pretty serious stuff and it should be aired during the course of the campaign so the voters can judge him accordingly. This is far more important than the made up scandals the media and the Democrats (please forgive the repetition) have tried to hang on Palin.

posted by DrewM. at 10:09 AM

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