Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Financial Times
September 5, 2008
By Daniel Dombey, in Washington
Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, said on Thursday night that the troop surge in Iraq had succeeded beyond his – or anyone else’s – expectations, adding that he believed the US was fighting a war on terror.
Mr Obama’s comments, in an interview with Fox News – a channel which his campaign has clashed in the past – come after months in which he has consistently outlined his opposition to the surge, which he has described as a tactical success imposed on a strategic blunder.
“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” he said. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”
The surge, which temporarily increased the number of US troops in Iraq to almost 170,000, was followed by a marked fall in violence. However, many analysts also highlight the importance of the “Sunni Awakening” movement, in which former insurgents cooperated with US forces.
Mr Obama added that he still thought he was right to oppose the surge, which he said had failed in its wider purpose of encouraging political reconciliation in Iraq.
When asked if the US was in a war on terror, he replied “absolutely” - in contrast with his usual language on the subject, which is usually more specific and less confrontational. But he added that the US was confronted by various radical Islamist threats that were not part of the same network. “We have to have the ability to distinguish between groups,” he said. “They may not all be part and parcel of the same ideology.”
Mr Obama said that it would be “unacceptable” and a “game changer” for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, arguing that as president he would both maintain a military option and step up the US’s diplomatic efforts.
He has insisted throughout the campaign that he would launch unilateral attacks on terrorist targets in Pakistan if the local authorities did not cooperate. But, pressed on the topic, he appeared to concede that he would not send significant numbers of ground troops into the country, arguing instead that he would put more pressure on Pakistan’s government to cooperate against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. “We wasted $10bn [in military aid] with [former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf] without holding him accountable,” he said.
Mr Obama agreed to appear on Fox News after the network repeatedly challenged him to do so. His campaign has been angered by what it sees as the channel’s right-wing bias, including a news anchor’s description of Mr Obama and his wife Michelle exchanging a “terrorist fist jab”.
But according to a new article in Vanity Fair, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp, which owns Fox News, brokered a “tentative truce” between the channel and the Democratic nominee at a secret meeting in New York.
September 5, 2008
By Daniel Dombey, in Washington
Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, said on Thursday night that the troop surge in Iraq had succeeded beyond his – or anyone else’s – expectations, adding that he believed the US was fighting a war on terror.
Mr Obama’s comments, in an interview with Fox News – a channel which his campaign has clashed in the past – come after months in which he has consistently outlined his opposition to the surge, which he has described as a tactical success imposed on a strategic blunder.
“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” he said. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”
The surge, which temporarily increased the number of US troops in Iraq to almost 170,000, was followed by a marked fall in violence. However, many analysts also highlight the importance of the “Sunni Awakening” movement, in which former insurgents cooperated with US forces.
Mr Obama added that he still thought he was right to oppose the surge, which he said had failed in its wider purpose of encouraging political reconciliation in Iraq.
When asked if the US was in a war on terror, he replied “absolutely” - in contrast with his usual language on the subject, which is usually more specific and less confrontational. But he added that the US was confronted by various radical Islamist threats that were not part of the same network. “We have to have the ability to distinguish between groups,” he said. “They may not all be part and parcel of the same ideology.”
Mr Obama said that it would be “unacceptable” and a “game changer” for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, arguing that as president he would both maintain a military option and step up the US’s diplomatic efforts.
He has insisted throughout the campaign that he would launch unilateral attacks on terrorist targets in Pakistan if the local authorities did not cooperate. But, pressed on the topic, he appeared to concede that he would not send significant numbers of ground troops into the country, arguing instead that he would put more pressure on Pakistan’s government to cooperate against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. “We wasted $10bn [in military aid] with [former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf] without holding him accountable,” he said.
Mr Obama agreed to appear on Fox News after the network repeatedly challenged him to do so. His campaign has been angered by what it sees as the channel’s right-wing bias, including a news anchor’s description of Mr Obama and his wife Michelle exchanging a “terrorist fist jab”.
But according to a new article in Vanity Fair, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp, which owns Fox News, brokered a “tentative truce” between the channel and the Democratic nominee at a secret meeting in New York.