Most of you probably know now that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agrees with Obama’s Iraq policy of troop withdrawal.  Maliki said in a German Newspaper that,

“he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s proposalthatU.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months … ‘U.S. 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,”

Jake Tapper of ABC also reports

The misfire comes at an odd time for Bush foreign policy, at a time when Obama’s campaign alleges the president is moving closer toward Obama’srecommendations about internationalrelations — sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, discussing a “general time horizon” for U.S. troop withdrawal and launching talks with Iran.

This is great for Obama, but horrible for the White House.  Mainly, its a White House embarrassment, because they are the ones that leaked the story to the press accidentally.  A White House staffer was supposed to send the e-mail with Maliki’s statements internally among other White House staffers, but the staffer who sent the e-mail pressed the wrong button and the press go the e-mail.  The other reason this would be an embarrassment is because the White House mainly Bush doesn’t support Obama’s position, obviously since hes a republican and its an election year. 

Also a major embarrassment for McCain, who by the way, claims he has extensive foreign policy experience and knowledge.  You would think for a guy who claims to have “extensive foreign policy experience” that he would know how to draft a plan for withdrawal of troops.  All McCain seems to draft is a plan for staying there, which the Iraqi government doesn’t want.  If the surge has worked, then why do we have combat forces still in Iraq? And if the surge has worked, then why does McCain think there will be a resurgence of attacks in Iraq near our election time?  I hope the American people are thinking about this, rather then blindly believing what they hear on TV and deeply thinking about the contradictions in McCain’s arguments.

This is just great for Obama.  Barack has been saying all this time, withdrawal in 16 months but keep troops there to protect bases and the embassy.  Also, he wants to move troops to Afghanistan to actually fight the war on terror, which for some reason this administration has forgot about.  You would think this would be reasonable but the McCain camp has a different view, which is staying there in Iraq.  Fortunately the most important people who would know whats good for their country thinks its reasonable.  Those people being the Iraqis.  Im also sure that our troops wouldn’t mind coming home and having shorter tours of duty either.  I doubt this will help Obama with people who already oppose him for whatever irrelevant issue, but for people who vote on the issues and undecided, this will definitely cement what most think about Obama.  That hes going to bring this war to an end, and that Obama has the right experience and grasp of the issues to be president of the United States.