Iraqi leaders support U.S. withdrawal in 2010

Iraqi leaders have told Barack Obama that they hope U.S. combat troops can be out of Iraq by the end of 2010, a government spokesman said today, outlining a time frame similar to one favored by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Obama’s visit here, the third stop on a weeklong tour designed to burnish his foreign policy credentials in his race against Republican John McCain, came amid tight security.

Iraqi spokesman Ali Dabbagh made the remark about removing U.S. troops following a meeting among Obama, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and other officials in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.

The statement added another twist to the controversy surrounding a weekend interview with a German magazine in which Maliki appeared to endorse Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. combat troops within 16 months of becoming president. Dabbagh later cast doubt on the account published in Der Spiegel, saying Maliki’s comments had been “misunderstood and mistranslated.”

Obama, who did not take questions from Iraqi and Western journalists waiting at Maliki’s compound, said, without breaking stride as he left, that he had a “constructive” meeting and would discuss it later.

Obama also met today with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad and was briefed by senior U.S., British and Iraqi commanders at an air base outside the southern oil hub of Basra. He was accompanied by Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

Obama has argued that the Bush administration’s “single-minded” focus on Iraq has distracted the United States from the more urgent threat of a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, which he visited for the first time over the weekend.

Obama wants to scale back the U.S. presence in Iraq and send two additional brigades to Afghanistan, although he has said he would fine-tune his plans based on the advice he receives from military leaders.

Obama’s foray into international politics is being heavily covered by the media. His opponent has emphasized his foreign policy experience and said it gave him an edge over the Illinois senator.

McCain, campaigned today in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he again attacked Obama for opposing the sharp increase in U.S. troops known as the surge.

With former President George H.W. Bush at his side, McCain told reporters on the oceanfront lawn of the Bush compound that the United States would have lost the Iraq war if commanders had adopted Obama’s original time line for withdrawing troops.

“The fact is [if] we had done what Sen. Obama wanted to do, we would have lost and we would have faced a wider war and we would have had greater problems in Afghanistan,” McCain said.

“So the fundamental difference is: He opposed it, I supported it,” McCain said. “If Sen. Obama had had his way, the troops would have been out by this past March.”

McCain also told reporters it was possible that troops could be “largely withdrawn” within two years, depending on conditions on the ground – a time line not too distant from the 16-month time frame that Obama has outlined. McCain has said he hopes to withdraw troops by 2013.

After today’s meeting, Dabbagh underlined that Iraq has its own “vision” of how long foreign troops are needed, and the government’s views on the subject should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any U.S. presidential candidate. He also said the details of any troop withdrawal would be negotiated with the administration in power, not a candidate.

Obama emphasized before his departure that his intention was to listen and not to negotiate. “We have one president at a time,” he told reporters.

The Der Spiegel article was published the day after the White House announced that President Bush and Maliki had agreed to work on a “general time horizon” for withdrawing U.S. combat troops.

McCain rejected the idea that Maliki’s comments to the German magazine had undercut McCain’s argument against an Obama candidacy.

The level of violence in Iraq has dropped markedly since Obama’s last visit in 2006, and Maliki’s government has become increasingly assertive about its ability to take charge of security. But many Iraqis worry that too hasty a withdrawal of U.S.-led forces could result in the country sliding back into sectarian and ethnic war.

The Congressional delegation arrived in Iraq after a brief stop in Kuwait, where they met Sunday with the emir, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, and other senior officials, the Kuwait News Agency reported. Details of their itinerary in Iraq were not released for security reasons. But it was expected to include talks with the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Their stop today was an air base on the outskirts of Basra, where they met with senior American, British and Iraqi officers, including U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq. They also met with troops from the three countries during the three-hour stop, said Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman.

 alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

 doug.smith@latimes.com

Times staff writers Maeve Reston contributed from Maine and Michael Muskal contributed from Los Angeles.