12-06-08, 12:16 pm
Media advisory Creating an Iraq Flip-Flop? Media root for Obama to reject withdrawal timeline 12/5/08
Original source: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Corporate media are cheering what they suggest are signs that President-elect Barack Obama will break his campaign promise and defy both U.S. and Iraqi public opinion to keep combat troops in Iraq for longer than his 16-month withdrawal timetable.
Complicating these media efforts to find a shift in Obama's Iraq policy is that he has been saying virtually the same thing on Iraq withdrawal throughout the campaign: that he wants to have U.S. combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months of taking office, but that he would carry out this withdrawal in a 'responsible' manner in consultation with his military advisers, and that an unspecified number of 'residual' forces would be left in Iraq after that 16-month deadline.
When he said at a press conference in July 2008 (7/3/08), 'I've always said that the pace of our withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability,' media pundits jumped on that as a (for them, hopeful) sign that Obama was backing away from withdrawal (FAIR Media Advisory, 7/15/08); Obama gave a second press conference the same day to insist he hadn't changed his position.
