McCain ripped Obama today over his comments yesterday that he would leave a "strike force" in Iraq after withdrawing the bulk of U.S. forces. McCain said "I think it might be appropriate to describe exactly what that means? Does that mean 100,000 troops, where are they based? What is their mission?" According to Carl Cameron, the response from the Obama campaign was that "McCain has Obama's policies wrong. The strike force would be in the region, not in Iraq." Except, that's not what he said yesterday, and it's not what he trumpets on his web site or what he had said in previous remarks.

In a March 2008 speech, Obama said: "In order to end this war responsibly, I will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. We can responsibly remove 1 to 2 combat brigades each month. If we start with the number of brigades we have in Iraq today, we can remove all of them in 16 months. After this redeployment, we will leave enough troops in Iraq to guard our embassy and diplomats, and a counter-terrorism force to strike al Qaeda if it forms a base that the Iraqis cannot destroy."

In a January 2007 speech: "My plan allows for a limited number of U.S. troops to remain as basic force protection, to engage in counter-terrorism, and to continue the training of Iraqi security forces."

And from his website: "Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda."

McCain has not specified the number of troops he will keep in Iraq or the length of time they will be kept there. Obama has willfully distorted this position and implied that McCain wants to keep U.S. forces enmeshed in a century long war in Iraq. Fine. Distorting the other guys position is part of the game--or at least that's how the "old politics" worked. But Obama can't have it both ways. His Iraq plan also involves keeping an unspecified number of troops in Iraq for an unspecified length of time. The difference? McCain's objective is victory. Obama's objective, like the details of his strike force, remains unspecified.