Just In Case You Weren’t Confused Yet, Obama Says Troop Levels In Iraq Are “Conditions Based”

Obama says he’s committed to ending the war in Iraq, but the number of troops he plans on leaving in Iraq is apparently entirely conditions-based if we’re to believe what he says here:

In Iraq, it’s not new that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has wanted to take control of his own country. But there’s always been this gap between his assessment of his abilities and American commanders’ saying he’s not up to it. As president, faced with that difference between what he says he can do and what the commanders say he can do, how would you choose between them?
Iraq is a sovereign country. Not just according to me, but according to George Bush and John McCain. So ultimately our presence there is at their invitation, and their policy decisions have to be taken into account. I also think that Maliki recognizes that they’re going to need our help for some time to come, as our commanders insist, but that the help is of the sort that is consistent with the kind of phased withdrawal that I have promoted. We’re going to have to provide them with logistical support, intelligence support. We’re going to have to have a very capable counterterrorism strike force. We’re going to have to continue to train their Army and police to make them more effective.
You’ve been talking about those limited missions for a long time. Having gone there and talked to both diplomatic and military folks, do you have a clearer idea of how big a force you’d need to leave behind to fulfill all those functions?
I do think that’s entirely conditions-based. It’s hard to anticipate where we may be six months from now, or a year from now, or a year and a half from now.

So, given this, how does Obama’s position on Iraq differ in any meaningful way from McCain’s? On one hand, Obama keeps telling us that he’s committed to ending the war immediately and withdrawing troops within his much-ballyhooed 16 month time line. Which is distinct from his opponent’s plan because McCain wants to withdraw troops within 16 months too but only if conditions in Iraq warrant it.
But now Obama is saying that he’d conditionally leave a large number of troops behind to continue training, security and anti-terror operations (which is pretty much all our troops are doing in Iraq now) for an unspecified amount of time. Which, frankly, is just a more complicated way of saying that he’d do what McCain would do.
Which perhaps isn’t surprising given that Obama’s Iraq policy has to please his divorced-from-reality political base while still being workable in the real world.
So how many troops would Obama leave in Iraq? Some 50,000 according to one source. Or about 12 brigades according to another.
This is what the McCain camp had to say about this development:

“Today Barack Obama finally abandoned his dangerous insistence on an unconditional withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by making clear that for the foreseeable future, troop levels in Iraq will be ‘entirely conditions based.’ We welcome this latest shift in Senator Obama’s position, but it is obvious that it was only a lack of experience and judgment that kept him from arriving at this position sooner.
“John McCain has always held the position that any withdrawal from Iraq must be based on conditions on the ground. With the incredible success of the surge, which John McCain advocated, it is increasingly likely that U.S. troops will be able to withdraw with victory in hand. John McCain had long urged Barack Obama, who opposed the surge, to return to Iraq in order to see the immense changes in the security situation there since his last visit. Now that Obama has finally met with General Petraeus, it appears that he has also come to the conclusion that troop levels in Iraq must be based on the conditions on the ground.”

Cue a confused, disappointed reaction from Obama wondering why everyone would think that he’s not going to immediately withdraw all the troops from Iraq after he said he would.
Discussion question: Even if you don’t necessarily agree with McCain on Iraq how can you prefer Obama’s muddled policies on the war? At least with McCain you know what you’re getting.