Posted by
Always To The Right on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 2:11:41 PM
Glenn Reynolds takes a close look at Barack Obama’s response to Amir Taheri and doesn’t see any daylight between them. Yesterday, Taheri accused Obama
of attempting to derail a status-of-forces agreement between the US and
Iraq by telling the Iraqis to wait until after the American elections
and stop negotiating with the Bush administration. Obama responded by essentially confirming Taheri’s account:
In the New York Post, conservative Iranian-born
columnist Amir Taheri quoted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari as
saying the Democrat made the demand when he visited Baghdad in July,
while publicly demanding an early withdrawal.
“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after
the US elections and the formation of a new administration in
Washington,” Zebari said in an interview, according to Taheri.
“However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that
regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the
matter open,” Zebari reportedly said. …
Obama’s national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said Taheri’s
article bore “as much resemblance to the truth as a McCain campaign
commercial.”
In fact, Obama had told the Iraqis that they should not rush through
a “Strategic Framework Agreement” governing the future of US forces
until after President George W. Bush leaves office, she said.
Which is exactly what Taheri wrote. Barack Obama went to
Iraq and interfered with the diplomatic efforts of the elected United
States government, in a war zone no less, by telling the Iraqis to stop
negotiating with the President. How exactly does that make Taheri’s
column untruthful?