WASHINGTON (AFP) — White House hopeful Barack Obama said Friday a tentative US-Iraqi deal to get American troops home by 2011 exposed his rival John McCain's war plan as mere "bluster" and divorced from reality.
The Democratic presidential candidate argued the proposed pact vindicated his own longtime call for troop pullouts, and argued that it undercut Republican McCain's criticism of his own call for even faster withdrawals.
"Senator McCain has stubbornly focused on maintaining an indefinite US presence in Iraq, but events have made his bluster and record increasingly out of touch with reality," Obama said in his statement.
"While Senator McCain continues to offer unconditional military and economic support for Iraq, I strongly believe that we need to use our leverage with the Iraqi government to ensure a political settlement."
But McCain issued his own statement, saying he was pleased that the surge strategy, of which he was the most prominent advocate, had yielded sufficient progress to permit talk of US troop withdrawals.
He also said the all dates in the proposed deal were "aspirational goals" based on conditions on the ground in Iraq not firm withdrawal deadlines.
"Conditions-based withdrawals of US troops are the precise opposite course of that advocated by Senator Obama," McCain said.
"Senator Obama seeks to withdraw all US combat forces regardless of the consequences for Iraq or for American national security," MCCain said.
The Arizona senator added that had the United States followed his rival's policy prescriptions for Iraq, it could have "easily descended into chaos."
Obama has pledged to begin troop withdrawals immediately if elected, and forsees most combat troops being out of Iraq by late 2010.
The emerging deal between US and Iraq negotiators would see the complete withdrawal of US forces to end an eight-year occupation, late in 2011, the top Iraqi official responsible for the deal told AFP on Friday.
Iraq has been at the center of the acrimonious White House battle, a prism for debate about US foreign policy and the national security experience required of a potential commander-in-chief.
The White House said that the 2011 date was a target not a hard deadline and said withdrawals were still contingent on economic and political progress.
But Obama said the administration had capitulated to Democratic calls for a firm end date to the US occupation.
"I am glad the administration has finally shifted to accepting a timetable for the removal of our combat troops from Iraq," Obama said in a statement after details emerged of the proposed deal.
"Success in Iraq depends on an Iraqi government that is reconciling its differences and taking responsibility for its future, and a timetable is the best way to press the Iraqis to do just that.
"I welcome the growing convergence around this pragmatic and responsible position."
Republican McCain, a hawkish, original supporter of the war, accuses Obama of embracing the politics of surrender.
But the Democrat has argued that his foe would be happy to keep troops entangled in Iraq for 100 years.
When the marathon election campaign began, the Iraq war was the prime issue, but a falling US death toll, improving security, and a worsening domestic economy have seen it slide down the agenda.
If a troop withdrawal deal further dims the potency of the issue -- it could be bad news for McCain as it might diminish the importance of his signature theme, national security.
But Obama also has made political hay by demanding an end to the war, and may be harmed if vehement anti-war sentiment diminishes, though it is unlikely that any large-scale withdrawals will take place before the election.
The fact a date is at least part of the equation would seem to undercut McCain.
It may make it more difficult for him to argue that Obama's plans for a pullback of combat troops at the rate of one to two brigades a month are tantamount to a capitulation to terrorists.
News of a deal also comes at a highly sensitive time in the political calendar, days before Obama's nominating convention in Denver.
Under the 27-point deal all American combat troops will be withdrawn by 2011 and from Iraqi cities by next June, negotiator Mohammed al-Haj Hammoud told AFP in Baghdad.
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