Obama takes issue of Mideast peace to the mountaintop
5:26 PM Tue, Jul 22, 2008 | Permalink
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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama stepped into the thicket of Mideast politics Tuesday, declaring in Jordan that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are strong enough internally to make the bold concessions necessary for peace. Obama said he would work to bring the two sides together "starting from the minute I'm sworn into office." But he cautioned it is "unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region." After meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II, Obama flew to Israel for talks with Israeli leaders. He'll also meet later with Palestinians. In Jordan, he made his comments on the struggle for Mideast peace within a few hours of stepping off a military aircraft - a presidential contender carrying body armor and wearing orange earplugs - following a five-day tour of war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq with two fellow senators, Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, and Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican. Standing alongside ancient mountaintop ruins with the Amman city skyline his memorable backdrop, Obama declined repeatedly to concede that President Bush's decision to dispatch 30,000 troops to Iraq in 2007 had succeeded. Still, he said, "I believe that the situation in Iraq is more secure than it was a year and a half ago." Back home, Republican rival John McCain renewed his criticism of Obama's pledge to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by the second year of his administration if he wins the presidency. "Sen. Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign," McCain said at a town hall meeting in Rochester, N.H. More from the Associated Press ... 
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