Obama on Iraq and His Bridge to Bush

In his discussion on Iraq yesterday evening, Obama went above and beyond the act of political courtesy that he extended to Bush during his telephone call with the former president. (A formal step to show the nation that the president who is going to end the war must first inform him who started it)

On live television in front of the nation at eight in the evening, Obama wanted to remind the public that the question of the war divided America and that he was against it (not an insignificant factor in his victory over Hillary in the primaries), but he also added that “there were patriots who supported this war and patriots who opposed it.”

It was a true gesture of reconciliation in an attempt to close the book of poisonous attacks and reciprocal delegitimization.

Unfortunately with the way things are going now, (with the Tea Party’s help, 30 percent of Republicans are convinced that Obama is a Muslim) it’s unlikely that his political rivals will appreciate this gesture.

Nonetheless, it is worth noting it was no easy move on his part. Pulling combat troops out of Iraq is one of the few things that the left wing of his party recognizes as being a part of the “real Obama” agenda that was put forth in 2008.

His affirmation that well-meaning Americans also stood on the other side of the fence is hard for the pacifists to swallow. Naturally, far left-wingers suspect that this hides a sort of Bush-Obama agreement on Afghanistan. But if Obama was thinking only in terms of political advantage, he could have continued to make the distinction between the wrong war and the just war, as he did in the past.