Obama's credentials as a peace candidate are shrinking quickly. Late last week he desribed his approach to foreign policy as like George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and JFK. Those president's were involved in many wars. The escalation of Vietnam into a quagmire occurred under JFK. Reagan found in Latin American, Nicaragua and El Salvador, and his administration was involved in the Iran-Conta violations. And George H.W. Bush's Gulf War laid the ground work for Clinton's sanctions which led into George W. Bush's invasion and occupation. Now, Obama describes with greater detail what he would do in Iraq and it sounds like he would leave more than 100,000 troops, close to 200,000 in Iraq. Troops meaning U.S. soldiers and military contractors which some call mercanaries. See below. Is he beginning to run to the center-right thinking he has the nomination sewed up? Sadly, other than his initial speech before he was a U.S. senator his voting record has included support for the war.

UPDATE: OBAMA'S POSITION ON IRAQ
April 1, 2008

AMY GOODMAN: Senator Obama, quick question: 70 percent of Iraqis say they want the US to withdraw completely; why don't you call for a total withdrawal?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Well, I do, except for our embassy. I call for amnesty and protecting our civilian contractors there.

AMY GOODMAN: You've said a residual force-

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Yeah, but-

AMY GOODMAN: -which means [inaudible] thousands [inaudible].

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Well, no. I mean, I don't think that you've read exactly what I've said. What I said is that we do need to have a strike force in the region. It doesn't necessarily have to be in Iraq; it could be in Kuwait or other places. But we do have to have some presence in order to not only protect them, but also potentially to protect their territorial integrity.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you call for a ban on the private military contractors like Blackwater?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: I've actually-I'm the one who sponsored the bill that called for the investigation of Blackwater in [inaudible], so-

AMY GOODMAN: But would you support the Sanders one now?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Here's the problem: we have 140,000 private contractors right there, so unless we want to replace all of or a big chunk of those with US troops, we can't draw down the contractors faster than we can draw down our troops. So what I want to do is draw-I want them out in the same way that we make sure that we draw out our own combat troops. Alright? I mean, I-

AMY GOODMAN: Not a ban?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Well, I don't want to replace those contractors with more US troops, because we don't have them, alright?