Samantha Power -- Obama Iraq withdrawal plan is "best case scenario"

[BobbyVan]

In an interview with BBC's HARDtalk on March 6, 2008, Power stated that Barack Obama's pledge to "have all combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months" was a "best case scenario" that "he will revisit when he becomes president." She continued, saying that "what we can take seriously is that he will try to get US forces out of Iraq as quickly and responsibly as possible." Power concluded her statement, saying that Obama "will not reply upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. senator."

You can watch the exchange here. The relevant portion starts at 3:45 in the video.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/progs/08/hardtalk/power_06mar.ram

[TwilightGardener]

1. Yep--I agree with that. It's going to be difficult, and will have to be

done very carefully. He needs to reassure the military that he will take their recommendations into consideration and not just set an arbitrary policy that might endanger our troops.

[lazer47]

2. "what we can take seriously is that he will try to get US forces out of Iraq as

quickly and responsily as possible"""What is so new about that,,, they have all said the same thing

[awaysidetraveler]

3. I'd be happy with 17 months, but Hillary keeps talking about 2012.

And that's unacceptable. In my opinion, that makes her a non-candidate.

[BobbyVan]

5. I guess the point is that Obama is making a meaningless pledge. n/t

[zabet]

4. I hardly think she knows more

about foreign policy and military
actions and responsibilities than
Wes Clark and all the other military
men that have supported Hillary.
Is this the same girl who could not
contain herself and let emotions get
the best of her and called the opponent
names? Is she the top foreign policy
advisor to Obama that led him to his
gaffes on Pakistan and Afghanistan?
The one person whose opinion really
matters in this scenario is already
out of the race. Joe Biden is the
'go to guy' for these issues.

[SoxFan]

6. "Girl"?

Let's look at the K-School web site:

Samantha Power is the Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy, based at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, where she was the founding executive director <1998-2002>. She is the recent author of Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World (Penguin Press, 2008), a biography of the UN envoy killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2003. Her book "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide (New Republic Books) was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction, and the Council on Foreign Relations' Arthur Ross Prize for the best book in U.S. foreign policy. Power's New Yorker article on the horrors in Darfur, Sudan, won the 2005 National Magazine Award for best reporting. In 2007, Power became a foreign policy columnist at Time magazine. From 1993 to 1996 she covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia as a reporter for the U.S. News and World Report, the Boston Globe, and The New Republic. She remains a working journalist, reporting from such places as Burundi, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, and contributing to the Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. Power is the editor, with Graham Allison, of Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, she moved to the United States from Ireland at the age of nine. She spent 2005 to 2006 working in the office of Senator Barack Obama.


Harvard professor, Pulitzer Prize winning author, acclaimed journalist, human rights activist. Yeah, what would this chicky-poo know about foreign policy...

[zabet]

8. I am sorry.

Maybe I should have said 'monster'.

I called her girl with no evil intent
whatsoever. Look at her pics, she is
young, tecnically a woman but, she
played childish playground games with
her name calling. She acts like a female
child, you know, a girl.

[SoxFan]

12. You questioned her qualifications

You implied that she lacks foreign policy credentials. That assertion is a steaming pile of horse crap. Samantha Powers is an internationally recognized authority on human rights. Go down to the library, check out a copy of "A Problem From Hell", and tell me if she is just a silly girly who can't go toe-to-toe with the big boys.

[zabet]

15. No I did not.

I said the only one whose
opinion mattered on this to
me was Joe Biden.

I also recall that Condi was
so versed and such an expert,
look how miserably she failed.

If she resorts to name calling
instead of valid points and
arguments, she is acting like a
little girl on the schoolyard
playgrounbd.

[dkf]

13. You are demeaning and minimizing which is actually

worse than calling someone a monster. At least a monster is an object of power that needs to be respected. Does it make you happy to belittle people? I bet you are good at demoralizing people and making them feel less of themselves and like nothings.

Seems you are a bit of a power monger yourself.

[zabet]

16. Yes, I want to rule the world.

I have a big rock and I
know I can take over with it.

With this rock, I will rule
the world.

:eyes:

[SoxFan]

17. I am Hillbot, hear me roar

[dkf]

18. I'm talking about needing to feel superior and belittling everyone around you.

That is what I got from your contemptuous post.

[zabet]

20. With all the contempt on this board

and you worry about lil ol' me?
I am touched.

[joeybee12]

22. Journalist!!!! LOL! And she doesn't even know that when she agrees

up front to speak on the record you can't just say something you regret is suddenly off the record!!!

[SoxFan]

23. Where's your Pulitzer, chump?

[Connie_Corleone]

7. Girl? Hypocritical Hillary supporters.

They get upset when someone else uses sexist language towards Hillary, but any woman who doesn't support Hillary can be called all kinds of sexist terms.

[zabet]

11. Excuse me then.

I should have said monster or
bitch instead to fit into what
Hillary haters consider acceptable.

She was childish resorting to name
calling, like a little girl on the
playground does.

[leftofcool]

9. Revisit it?

This is on his website:

"Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda."

So, he will not rely on a plan he "crafted" as a senator and will revisit/rethink his stance on the war?

[BigDDem]

10. She sounds like a MONSTER...

but that's off the record.

[sandnsea]

14. Things have changed in the last year

and they'll change this year. I hope you don't want someone implementing a war plan without considering the current facts on the ground.

[Egnever]

19. OMG!

Reality god forbid!

[BobbyVan]

21. It's on Politico now

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Power_on_Obamas_Iraq_plan_best_case_scenario.html

Power on Obama's Iraq plan: "best case scenario"

For all the chatter about Obama adviser Samantha Power's calling Clinton a "monster," another set of remarks made on her book tour in the United Kingdom may be equally threatening to the Obama campaign: Comments in a BBC interview that express a lack of confidence that Obama will be able to carry through his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months.

"He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator," she said at one point in the interview.

Power downplayed Obama's commitment to quick withdrawal from Iraq on Hard Talk, a program that often exceeds any of the U.S. talk shows in the rigor of its grillings. She was challenged on Obama's Iraq plan, as it appears on his website, which says that Obama "will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months."

"What he’s actually said, after meting with the generals and meeting with intelligence professionals, is that you – at best case scenario – will be able to withdraw one to two combat brigades each month. That’s what they’re telling him. He will revisit it when he becomes president," Power says.

The host, Stephen Sackur, challenged her:"So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out in 16 months isn't a commitment isn't it?"

"You can’t make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January of 2009," she said. "He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. He will rely upon a plan – an operational plan – that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn’t have daily access now, as a result of not being the president. So to think – it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, 'Well, I said it, therefore I’m going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.'"

"It’s a best-case scenario," she said again.

Obama's and Clinton's have both refused to promise a firm timeline for withdrawal, even by 2013, because of the changing situation on the ground in Iraq. But Power also seemed to depart from Obama's optimism that his plan is likely to work.

Power identified herself in the interview as an "informal adviser" to Obama.

"I've never been in politics before, I've thought of being on a show like this defending a presidential candidate before, and I wouldn't do it if I didn't agree with him," she said.

You can watch the full interview here. The discussion of Iraq begins around 3:45. And thanks to the reader who sent over the link.