Interesting Contrast

Per the Washington Post today, President Obama says "I don't want to put an artificial timetable on the process" referring to his offer to Iran to engage in the diplomatic process concerning their aspirations to attain nuclear weapons.

It is interesting that President Obama is not interested in putting an "artificial timetable" on the "process" but pushed hard for a definate withdrawal date from the War in Iraq. Why would the United States not want to monitor the process in Iraq and act accordingly instead of setting a hard deadline? Why would President Obama set a specific date on the closing of Gitmo without having a plan or monitoring the "process?"

The contrast may reveal something that the more cynical of us knew long ago, that the hard and fast deadlines President Obama set for Iraq and Gitmo were simply political moves to satisfy his leftist base. The deadlines were not smart decisions strategically but simply political moves that were not necessarily feasible. On Iran, President Obama believes that the smart move stratigically is to wait on the "process," and he can follow through on that because he does not have his leftist base howling to set a date.

It seems to me that this contrast is proof that setting a timetable on Iraq withdrawal and the closing of Gitmo was an example of putting politics ahead of what is best for America; putting the interests of Obama ahead of the interests of the nation. Call me crazy, but I think that the most important thing that Obama intends to "preserve, protect and defend" is his political stature.