On Saturday, Senator Obama said the US should not commit to a long-term occupation of Iraq. He said recent comments by Iraqi leaders calling for a timetable for withdrawal of US troops added weight to his stand in favor of a timetable.

Sen. Barack Obama: “John McCain and George Bush both said that if Iraq, as a sovereign government, stated that it was time for us to start withdrawing our troops, then they would respect the wishes of that sovereign government, and given that I think it’s also in our strategic interests, it certainly strikes me that we shouldn’t be writing a status of forces agreement, for example, that locks in a long-term occupation.”