From CounterPunch
By Patrick Cockburn

Barack Obama has paid his first visit to Iraq, just as the Iraqi government explicitly matched the Democratic presidential candidate’s 16-month timetable for the removal of American combat troops.

Senator Obama met Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, in Baghdad yesterday during his visit, which had become overshadowed by a row over the proposed pullout. Mr Obama did not raise his plan for withdrawal of US forces, the government said. But Mr Maliki’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said his government was “hoping that in 2010 combat troops will withdraw from Iraq”. This time frame is similar to Mr Obama’s.

The White House was clearly dismayed and embarrassed by an interview given by Mr Maliki to the German news magazine Der Spiegel in which he appeared to express agreement with Mr Obama’s withdrawal plans. Mr Dabbagh later said in a statement distributed by the American military that Mr Maliki’s words had been “misunderstood and mistranslated”.
Der Spiegel stood by its version of what Mr Maliki said and said the translator for the interview was provided by Mr Maliki’s own office and not by the magazine. In reality, Mr Maliki did say Mr Obama’s 16-month plan “could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq”.

Differences over American strategy in Iraq and the number of troops to be kept there is at the centre of the American presidential campaign. The Republican candidate, Senator John McCain, has argued that US forces should stay in Iraq until it has won a victory, although it is not clear what this victory would entail. He successfully relaunched his campaign to become the Republican nominee last year by claiming that the US was succeeding militarily.

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