Description: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki essentially endorsed Senator Barack Obama's plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq in an interview with the German magazine, "Der Spiegel". "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months," Mr. Maliki said, according to the magazine's online English edition. "That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes." Naturally, Mr. Maliki did not want to imply he was backing one candidate over another in a foreign election: "Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business," he said. But then, apparently referring to Republican candidate John McCain's more open-ended Iraq policy, Maliki said: "Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems." On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain told a town hall, "I know how to win wars. ... I will turn around the war in Afghanistan. ... I know how to do that." The next day, CNN's John Roberts asked Senator Joe. Biden (D-DE), "Do you believe Senator Obama knows how to win wars? And if he does, how?" "He has a much more centered view on what our problems are," Biden replied. "John McCain was wrong about the war in Iraq. John McCain says the surge worked — but remember the purpose of the surge ... was to create 'breathing room' for a political settlement in Iraq. ... We're not closer to a political settlement." "John McCain has finally acknowledged he has to put more troops in Afghanistan or we're going to lose Afghanistan," continued Biden. "John McCain's now realizing the desperate situation in Afghanistan, says we need more troops. ... He first said we have to take them out of Iraq. ... Then he says no, we'll have NATO do it. Then he came back and corrected again, NATO can't do it, we have to do it." "The truth of the matter is, Barack Obama has been centered," Biden stated firmly, "and the central war on terror is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, not Iraq." Roberts then cited an ABC/Washington Post poll which indicates that Americans think McCain has a better knowledge of world affairs by 63%-26% and that 72% think McCain would make a good commander-in-chief, while only 48% believe Obama would. Biden's response was that Obama is "leading John McCain on every area except the one where experience just intuitively suggests that people think: "if you're experienced, then you MUST know more". "But 20 years of experience that has not been very solid in terms of projecting what was going to happen doesn't make you a better commander-in-chief." "We don't need as a commander-in-chief a war hero," Biden emphasized. "John's a war hero. We need someone with some wisdom. ... President Bush's policy, which John McCain has embraced on Iraq and foreign policy generally, has been an abject failure." ... More» (<<)

Description: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki essenti... (>>)