Obama will not withdraw from Iraq

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4965

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)."

and, frankly, I think "conditional engagement" is valid and that a total withdrawal of all combat forces would be foolish to our self interest as well as Iraq's. Withdrawal and stay the course need not be the only options. Staying the course as McCain would have us do is of course untenable, but there is a blood cost to total withdrawal as well.

A good question for Obama would be, does he support the Euston Manifesto? Where does he disagree, if at all?