Lost in translation

The German weekly Der Spiegal gave Senator Obama's new/old Foreign Policy position some much needed weight:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supports US presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months. When asked in and interview with SPIEGEL when he thinks US troops should leave Iraq, Maliki responded "as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned." He then continued: "US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

And it wasn't  long before the Obama campaign began telling everyone that their new/old Foreign policy position was being endorsed by an actual, real live foreign leader. And even better, the leader of Iraq

Senator Obama welcomes Prime Minister Maliki's support for a 16 month timeline for the redeployment of U.S combat brigades. This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military and increasing our commitment to finish the fight in Afghanistan.

Of course, the only problem with all of this is that Prime Minister Maliki was misquoted; or more properly, mistranslated

In an audio recording of his remarks, heard by the BBC, the prime minister did not use the word "withdrawal".

What he actually said was: "The direction is towards either a memorandum of understanding on their evacuation, or a memorandum of understanding on programming their presence."

I guess no one at Der Spiegal speaks Arabic.

The misrepresentation went far enough that the Prime Minister's office corrected the record officially.

...a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately."

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the possibility of troop withdrawal was based on the continuance of security improvements, echoing statements that the White House made Friday after a meeting between al-Maliki and U.S. President Bush.

Of course, had Senator Obama had his way, he would not be visiting Iraq at all because the country would be in the hands of the enemy. This fact seems to be lost on Obama: Afghanistan is heating up after so long is directly a result of al Qaida moving resources from Iraq to Afghanistan because they lost in Iraq. Something that would not have been the case had Obama got his way. In the alternate universe in which Obama won that debate, al Qaida would be shifting resources from Afghanistan to Iraq because they would have a whole country to move about in. And under these circumstances, Obama would not be visiting Iraq.

Or if he did visit, he'd be talking to the enemy.

Something he seems not opposed to doing.....