McCain Says 16-Month Timetable Is "Pretty Good"

July 28, 2008 11:29 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The war in Iraq took center stage on the campaign trail after Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) returned home over the weekend from a 10-day tour of Europe and the Middle East.

Obama is accusing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) of factually flawed arguments, saying he has now adopted McCain's stance that troop levels in Iraq should be based on conditions on the ground. The Democratic presidential hopeful earlier welcomed his rival's sudden support for his 16-month timetable, a proposal Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki also supports.

McCain, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and former POW, has consistently opposed imposing a timetable for the removal of troops int the war-torn nation, saying any exit strategy will depend on the advice of commanders and conditions on the ground. The four-term Republican senator has vowed to have all U.S. troops home and the Iraq war successfully ended by 2013, when he completes his first term as president.

On Saturday, however, McCain said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he thinks a 16-month timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops would be feasible.

McCain initially said that he was certain that Maliki would not support a timetable, "Because I know him. And I know him very well. And I know the other leaders. And I know -- I've been there eight times, as you know. I know them very, very well," according to MSNBC.

But then McCain admitted, "He [Maliki] said it's a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground. I think it's a pretty good timetable, as we should -- or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions on the ground."

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said last week that they are hoping for complete U.S. redeployment by 2010 despite an agreement between Maliki and President George W. Bush a week earlier on a "general time horizon" for troop reductions instead of a specific date for withdrawal.

The current agreement mandated by the United Nations for the presence of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq expires at the end of the year. Negotiations have been increasingly difficult because Iraqi officials are concerned that any agreement would infringe on Iraqi sovereignty.

Obama, who met with Maliki last week, expressed optimism about the "convergence" around his redeployment plan, saying, "The fact that John McCain now thinks that it's possible for us to execute a phased withdrawal -- I think that's a positive thing and if the administration believes that as well, then I will, I will be fully supportive," according to CNN.

McCain issued a statement the same day "welcom[ing] this latest shift in Senator Obama's position" that troop withdrawal should be "conditions-based," referring to a recent Obama interview with Newsweek.

"It is obvious that it was only a lack of experience and judgment that kept him from arriving at this position sooner,"McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann said.