Region | Iraq
Troop surge in Iraq 'a success', admits Obama
In a much-anticipated interview with conservative nemesis Bill O'Reilly, Senator Barack Obama said on Thursday that the troop surge in Iraq had "succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated" and "beyond our wildest dreams".
- By James Rainey, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
- Published: 23:12 September 5, 2008
Los Angeles: In a much-anticipated interview with conservative nemesis Bill O'Reilly, Senator Barack Obama said on Thursday that the troop surge in Iraq had "succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated" and "beyond our wildest dreams".
But despite expressing his most positive assessment of a military buildup he opposed, the Democratic presidential candidate made no concession on what he said is the more critical issue of Iraq's political stability.
"The Iraqis still haven't taken responsibility," Obama said on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor. "And we still don't have that kind of political reconciliation."
Obama emphasised that he recognised the threat of terrorists and would not hesitate to use military force when needed. "Al Qaida, the Taliban, a whole host of networks that are bent on attacking America who have a distorted ideology who have perverted the faith of Islam. And so we have to go after them."
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