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Obama shifts from war zones to Mideast peace efforts

BY MICHAEL FINNEGAN | Los Angeles Times

July 23, 2008

AMMAN, Jordan - After visits to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama shifted his focus to Mideast peace efforts yesterday, arriving for two days of talks with leaders in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The presumptive Democratic nominee for president arrived at a military base in Jordan under tight security after concluding his Iraq visit with a stop in Ramadi, once a breeding ground of the Sunni insurgency.

Obama told reporters in Jordan that tribal leaders whom he met in Ramadi expressed concern that a "precipitous" withdrawal could lead to new violence. "I have proposed a steady, deliberate drawdown over the course of 16 months, and I emphasized that to them," Obama said.

As he left the combat zones of Iraq behind, an attack yesterday morning near the Jerusalem hotel where Obama planned to stay last night offered an unwelcome illustration of the enduring violence stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A Palestinian man rammed a construction vehicle into three cars and a city bus, injuring four people before an Israeli civilian shot and killed him, The Associated Press reported. "Today's bulldozer attack is a reminder of what Israelis have courageously lived with on a daily basis for far too long," Obama told reporters here.

The Illinois senator spoke from the dramatic setting of ancient ruins atop Citadel Hill, or Jebel-al-Qual'a. On either side of Obama were the two senators who traveled with him to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait: Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Jack Reed (D- R.I.). Like Obama, they called for a shift in U.S. troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, saying they are sorely needed there to fight resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida forces.

Of all the things he learned in the war zones, the most "eye-opening," Obama said, was "the extent to which the porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan makes it very difficult for our troops, good as they are, to decisively defeat the Taliban" and terrorist groups.

Obama's nine-day trip abroad is aimed at building voter confidence in his ability to handle foreign affairs, an area where Republican rival John McCain has held an edge in public opinion polls. McCain, at a campaign town hall in Rochester, N.H., again questioned Obama's judgment on Iraq yesterday.

"He still fails to acknowledge that the surge succeeded," McCain said. That is "remarkable, remarkable. And as you know he just received his first briefing ever from General [David] Petraeus and he declared policy toward Iraq before he left."

Obama plans to meet heads of state in Germany, France and Britain later this week. Tomorrow, tens of thousands of people are expected to fill a Berlin park for an Obama speech on U.S. relations with Europe.