White House Denies Obama's Opposition To Iraq Surge Was Based On Politics

BuzzFeed - “It doesn’t track.” View Video › White House press secretary Jay Carney denied Wednesday that President Obama did opposed the Iraq troop surge for political reasons, contrary to a new book written by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates."Anybody who has covered Barack Obama, going all the way back to his race for the Senate knows that he was opposed to the Iraq War," Carney said at a Wednesday press briefing."It would be entirely inconsistent for him not to hold the position that he held with regards to the surge. So I don't know what conversation that refers but it doesn't track based on what I know and what everybody here knows about the president's positions through the year," Carney added.Gates writes that both Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted they opposed the troop surge for political reasons."Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing hi