Barack Obama on the issues 4

Do you support setting a deadline for either a withdrawal or a partial pullback of troops from Iraq? If so, what would be the date of that deadline?

I opposed this war from the beginning, when it was unpopular to do so, in part because I believed it was a diversion from the real threat of al Qaeda and that giving this President the authority would lead to the open-ended occupation we find ourselves in today. Now our soldiers find themselves in the crossfire of a civil war and our military is stretched thin. I support beginning the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq immediately, and under the plan I introduced in January 2007, we would have begun withdrawing forces engaged in combat operations on May 1, 2007. A withdrawal of our troops is the best leverage we have to press the Iraqi political leaders to make the political compromises necessary to end their civil war.