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This article appeared in the April 7, 2008 edition of The Nation.

March 19, 2008

About That Obama Endorsement...

New York City

I was not surprised by your endorsement of Barack Obama ["Obama's Promise," Feb. 25]. But I was astonished that you made no mention of an editorial you ran almost exactly twelve months earlier vowing "not [to] support any candidate who does not call for a speedy withdrawal of our troops" from Iraq ["Into 2008," Feb. 26, 2007]. "Speedy withdrawal" is not Obama's position, by a long shot. Not only has he promised to maintain a military presence in order to protect the new US Embassy in Baghdad, the largest embassy in the world; he also says he'll keep troops in or around Iraq in case "Al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq." Considering that Al Qaeda already has a base in Iraq, this is a loophole big enough to admit a B-52. Promises of any kind of withdrawal, speedy or sluggish, are thus meaningless.

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