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Obama in Iraq: Still opposes the “surge”
By Paul Gleiser | July 22, 2008 | 
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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, visiting Iraq as a part of a congressional fact-finding tour, told ABC’s Terry Moran that even taking into account the undisputed success of the U.S. military surge, he would still oppose it if given the chance to vote again.
Here is the transcript of the interview:
TERRY MORAN: The surge of U.S. troops, combined with ordinary Iraqis’ rejection of both al Qaeda and Shiite extremists have transformed the country. Attacks are down more than 80% nationwide. U.S. combat casualties have plummeted, five this month so far, compared with 78 last July, and Baghdad has a pulse again. If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you — would you support the surge?
OBAMA: No, because — keep in mind that —
MORAN: You wouldn’t?
OBAMA: Well, no, keep — these kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. Hindsight is 20/20. I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time, we had to change the political debate, because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with…”
Topics: Barak Obama, Iraq War | No Comments »