Barack and Iraq

I'm reading George Packer's excellent The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq, which I might have more to say about at a later date. Although I've often found myself arguing with aspects of Packer's analysis in the book, I mostly agree with what he has to say about Barack Obama's policy on Iraq in the latest issue of The New Yorker.

Packer argues that Obama should, and probably will, veer away from his existing policy of early withdrawal, in the light of recent signs that the situation in Iraq is stabilising. And echoing something I wrote here, Packer suggests that it's not enough for the Democratic candidate to rely on the anti-war rhetoric that won him the nomination:

If Obama truly wants to be seen as a figure of change, he needs to talk less about the past and more about the future: not the war that should never have been fought but the war that he, alone of the two candidates, can find an honorable way to end.

Take time to read the whole article, and Jeff Weintraub's comment on it.