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Here is video of President Barack Obama today announcing his plan to withdraw all combat mission U.S. Troops from Iraq by August of 2010. He made the announcement in a speech before U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Obama's plan will leave 50,000 U.S. Troops in Iraq after the August 2010 deadline, but they will not be classified as "combat" troops. He said he wanted all troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011. But Obama left wiggle room to alter these plans based on what happens in Iraq between now and then. Obama clearly wanted to leave...

The fix is in as AP covers for Obama: Bam-bam's plan for a 16-month withdrawal is being worked by the Pentagon. They fail to discuss the moving baseline of Bam-bam's words - but do take the time to mention that it accelerates W's plan ... the one negotiated with the Iraqis. I get a whiff of cut and run.

After our visit to Iraq this month, it is clear that what was once unthinkable there is now taking place: A stable, safe and free Iraq is emerging. Violence has fallen to the lowest level since the first months of the war. The Sunni Arabs who once formed the core of the insurgency are today among our most steadfast allies in the fight against al-Qaeda. A status-of-forces agreement between Iraq and America will take effect next month, providing for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and a commensurate increase in Iraqi self-defense. And Iraqi politics is increasingly taking on the messy...

Full text of the final, ratified Status Of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq.

Today, Obama, in an attempt to burnish his foreign policy credentials, held a conference on foreign policy issues. In his speech he stressed the need for "a new direction" and "multilateralism". McCain, on the other hand, wants to continue in the same direction and to continue with the present multilateralism without rejecting unilteralism when necessary. Bush chose unilateralism when the international community was resisting joint action in the path Bush had decided upon. Bush didn't want to have the international community determine what was in America's best interest. He wanted to act independently when necessary. To favour multilateralism is to...

CNN) — Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden is cancelling his campaign events for Saturday and Sunday as his mother-in-law battles a serious illness. The Senator from Delaware's campaign spokesman, David Wade, put out a statement saying "the campaign has cancelled Sen. Biden's schedule today and tomorrow because of a serious illness in Jill Biden's family. Hospice has advised the Bidens to remain close by, and we appreciate everyone's respect for the family's privacy." Biden was scheduled to speak in Washington D.C. and then attend a fund-raiser in the nation's capitol Saturday night. Sunday he was expected to campaign in...

There is nothing wrong with setting broad goals for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. The U.S. wants to leave as soon as this is feasible, and Iraqis have long wanted us to leave. At least since 2004, Iraq’s Kurds have been the only group in Iraq that showed a consistent desire for the U.S. to stay. It also is impossible to be certain that the risks of early withdrawal will really be greater from the risks of staying. It is at least possible that acting on early timelines will force Iraqis to move towards political accommodation, to take hard decisions,...

At the "make-or-break" stage of talks with the U.S. on the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has swept aside his negotiating team and replaced it with three of his closest aides, a reshuffle that some Iraqi officials warn risks sabotaging the agreement. The decision on the team negotiating the pact, which the Americans have described as the basis of a long-term strategic alliance between the United States and Iraq, remains so sensitive that it has not been announced. In disclosing the switch to the Los Angeles Times this weekend, a senior Iraqi official close to...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that an agreement had been reached in negotiations on a security pact with the United States to end any foreign military presence in Iraq by the end of 2011. "There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date which is the end of 2011 to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders in the Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. "Yes, there is major progress on the issue of the negotiations on the security deal,"...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2008 – Unofficial reports indicate that Russian troops began to withdraw from the Georgian town of Gori last evening, a senior Defense Department spokesman said here today. “We’re going to have to see whether or not that is the beginning of a true withdrawal,” Bryan Whitman said, or “some sort of token effort.” Meanwhile, deliveries of U.S. humanitarian supplies to Georgia continue, Whitman said. About 264 tons of supplies have been air-delivered to Georgia so far, he said. Whitman also told reporters that Russian troops in Georgia took some U.S. military Humvee vehicles. He said he didn’t...

GORI, Georgia (Reuters) - Russia announced to the West it would begin withdrawing forces from Georgia on Monday after a war that dealt a humiliating blow to the Black Sea state and raised fears for energy supplies to Europe. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had told him by telephone that forces would begin leaving around midday on Monday. Sarkozy, representing the European Union, said failure to pull out under a ceasefire deal would have "serious consequences" for ties with the EU. Sunday saw no evidence of fighting, but Russian troops continued to man...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2008 – A cease-fire agreement signed today by the president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia calls for Russian troops to immediately leave his country, America’s senior diplomat said in the Georgian capital today. “And now, with the signature of the Georgian president on this cease-fire accord, all Russian troops and any irregular and paramilitary forces that entered with them must leave immediately,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a news conference in Tbilisi with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili at her side. President Bush dispatched Rice to Europe to assist in resolving a now...

Obama and the democrats told us the Iraq war wasn't working and wouldn't work because of intransigence by the Iraqi government. Even when the surge worked, Obama said it didn't matter because the Iraqi government failed to meet political and economic benchmarks needed for national unity and to end the (nonexistent) civil war.Now Obama goes to Iraq and supports the supposed withdrawal position of the Iraqi government. Am I the only who sees the incredible inconsistency here? According to Obama the Iraqi goverenment couldn't deliver, it couldn't be trusted when it reported progress, its military moves were destined for failure.But...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s vocal support for Barack Obama’s 16-month withdrawal timetable goes to show how distorted the Iraq drawdown argument has become in light of the election narrative. Of course a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq becomes less preposterous as security increases in that country — because during that transition the idea of timetables stops being purely artificial and becomes more reality-based. To think otherwise is a logical absurdity, and that’s what the popular state of this discussion has become. As a war draws to a close, individual soldiers don’t start calling travel agents and packing bags...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supports US presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months. When asked in and interview with SPIEGEL when he thinks US troops should leave Iraq, Maliki responded "as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned." He then continued: "US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes." Maliki was careful to back away from outright support for Obama. "Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they...

What if someone gave a war & Nobody came? Life would ring the bells of Ecstasy and Forever be Itself again. -- from"Graffiti," poem by Allen Ginsberg [1972]. Maybe so. But what of the converse? What if someone sued for peace but the enemy didn't go along? That was General David Petraeus's observation today on the Obama withdrawal plan, in a line that could well become my favorite of the year. Petraeus made his comment in the course of an interview with Andrea Mitchell, in Baghdad. A clip of the interview was aired on this evening's Hardball, with Mike Barnicle...

US election: Barack Obama wobbles on withdrawing Iraq troops By Tim Shipman in Washington Last Updated: 12:20AM BST 04/07/2008 Senator Barack Obama has rushed to clarify his position on the Iraq War after he appeared to wobble on a commitment to withdraw US ground troops within 16 months, a central plank of his candidacy. Barack Obama speaks on his Iraq policy during a news conference in Fargo, North Dakota The Democratic presidential nominee used a press conference to say that the timetable was not set in stone and that he would adjust his plans based on conditions on the ground...

Below is the survey question at Senator Ben Cardin's website. If you are a Maryland Freeper, I invite you to visit the website - http://cardin.senate.gov/ - and participate in the survey. If you are not a Maryland Freeper, vist anyway.

Hedge Funds Make It Hard To Say Goodbye Thursday April 10, 2:58 am ET By Gregory Zuckerman If you thought getting into a hedge fund was tough, try getting out of one. With the markets sputtering, some high-profile hedge funds are rejecting withdrawal requests, with some telling investors that it could be years before they will see all their cash again. And it isn't just big institutions and the wealthy that are getting rebuffed. Some smaller investors who took advantage of lower minimum investments by putting their cash into so-called funds of funds, which invest in numerous hedge funds, are...

...With all-too-rare exceptions, our politicians, right or left, really don't give a damn about our troops... they really only value our troops as tools of partisan policies or for photo ops. Between the incumbent president and his would-be replacements, only one has served in uniform or had a son or daughter serve in uniform?... We've seen President Bush dressed up in a flight suit, grinning like Alfred E. Neuman among troops who desperately want to believe in their commander-in-chief. We've seen Sen. Hillary Clinton do drive-bys in Iraq- just long enough to make political statements, pose with the troops, then...