Obama Iraq Flip Flops?

Steve Chapman wrote this commentary today making the point that Obama's Iraq position has stayed relatively unchanged and that conservative attacks that he has flip flopped are unfounded.

It's hard to keep up with Barack Obama's positions on the Iraq war. When he entered the presidential race, he offered a plan that would take more than a year to withdraw from Iraq. In September, he said he would withdraw all our combat brigades over 15 months or so. This week, he vowed to pull those forces out within 16 months of taking office.

Wow. He's really been all over the lot, hasn't he? No one can possibly tell if President Obama will get us out in February of 2010, or if he'll put it off till April.

Small wonder that a John McCain spokesman said that on Iraq, Obama "has held almost every conceivable position." Or that a blogger for the conservative American Spectator said Obama "has entered John Kerry territory when it comes to changing positions on Iraq."

Coincidentally, John McCain came out with this web ad today.


Now of course, this tape is created by the McCain campaign so of course there is an obvious bias. That said, all it really does is put together Obama's own statements which are themselves contradictory. This tape is over seven minutes long so just in case you don't watch the whole thing here are some of the flip flops: timetables for withdrawal, funding for the troops, whether or not the surge would quell violence, and the role of the residual force after his withdrawal.

So, Chapman can claim that Obama has always said the same thing but according to Obama himself his mind has been constantly shifting.