WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday almost boasted of the "convergence" of the US administration and his Republican White House rival John McCain around his foreign policy goals for the United States.
Obama told Terry Moran on ABC's "Nightline" that after being fiercely criticized for proposing a 16-month timeline for US troop withdrawal from Iraq, both Baghdad and the White House have now "suggested that we needed some kind of time horizon.
"You know there was a whole verbiage around it, but there is a sense that we need to start to point to an end game here."
In much the same way, the Illinois senator said, his suggestion months ago that two additional brigades were needed in Afghanistan was opposed by McCain, "and now there is convergence around the notion that we need at least two and maybe three brigades."
Finally, Obama said he was "thrilled" after his much maligned proposal that the United States should talk with foes including Iran "to see a terrific diplomat, (Undersecretary of State) Bill Burns, now involved in conversation," with Iran.
"They are not setting the world on fire yet, nevertheless, you are starting to see some movements," Obama said regarding Washington's overtures toward Tehran.
"So there is a convergence around a set of principles in terms of pursuing our foreign policy, that corresponds to a lot of the things I have been suggesting," the 46-year-old senator told his ABC interviewer in Baghdad, where he arrived Monday for a two-day visit.
Obama elegantly avoided an open boast when asked if he thought things were coming his way.
"Well, you know, it is not just a matter of coming my way. There is a reality there that has to be addressed.
"And if you clear the underbrush of ideology and people having different positions, and arguing from different perspectives, at some point, you have to land on reality in order to make sure that the American people are safe."
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