Obama gains tentative support in Iraq

BAGHDAD - Face-to-face with Iraq's leaders, Barack Obama gained fresh support yesterday for the idea of pulling all U.S. combat forces out of the war zone by 2010. But the Iraqis stopped short of actual timetables or endorsement of Obama's pledge to withdraw American troops within 16 months if he wins the presidency.

The Democratic presidential contender also got a military briefing - and a helicopter tour - from the top U.S. commander in the region, Gen. David Petraeus, and he met with a few of the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops.

Back in the United States, Obama's Republican rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he hoped Obama's visit would open his eyes to the danger of withdrawal timetables.

Meeting with President Bush's father, the former president, in Maine, McCain said, "When you win wars, troops come home." Of Obama, McCain said, "He's been completely wrong on the issue."

As Obama visited Iraq for the first time in more than two years, comments yesterday by that nation's government spokesman roughly mirrored the Illinois senator's withdrawal schedule and offered a glimpse of Iraq's growing confidence as violence drops and Iraqi security forces expand their roles.

"We are hoping that in 2010 combat troops will withdraw from Iraq," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said after Obama met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has struggled for days to clarify Iraq's position on a possible timetable for a U.S. troop pullout.

Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, said after meeting Obama that Iraqi leaders share "a common interest . . . to schedule the withdrawal of American troops."

"I'd be happy if we reach an agreement to say, for instance, the 31st of December 2010" would mark the departure of the last U.S. combat unit, he said. That date would be about seven months later than Obama's 16-month timeline.

Obama said almost nothing to reporters as he walked to and from his meetings, promising to give fuller impressions after his stop in Iraq wraps up today and he heads to Jordan and then to Israel.

In Baghdad, the delegation traveled in convoys of black SUVs with tinted windows. Obama attended some meetings wearing a dark suit and tie despite temperatures well above 100 degrees.

Security around the city was not noticeably tightened, but that's difficult to gauge in a place with permanent checkpoints, concrete blast walls and military helicopter surveillance. No major attacks were reported around the capital. *