scout...I expect that Obama will visit Iraq after the Democratic convention...but there is no reason for him to respond to McCain's attempt to bait him into going together so that McCain can "educate" him on the progress in Iraq.
Lets not pretend that a trip by either candidate to Iraq is anything more than another campaign stop...but I agree, Obama should go talk to the troops - on his terms, not McCain's -they are the voters with the most on the line.
I do find it amusing that McCain is trying to pass himself off as more informed about Iraq.
Obama seemed pretty well informed at the
Senate hearings last month with Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker.
It is McCain, who on several occasions, has
confused al Queda in Iraq with the Shiite militia/insurgents.
It is McCain who told the American people that it was safe to walk through the Baghdad central market when the facts on the ground were entirely different.
And it was Obama in 2002, months before Bush's invasion of Iraq, who
correctly understood the likely outcome:
"...Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength....
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.
I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale ...will only fan the flames of the Middle East....and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda"