I'm pretty sure Kuskovian is correct, and the United States will leave Iraq no matter who is elected.
CFR quoteOriginally Posted by Council on Foreign Relations
Nouri al-Maliki requested "a memorandum of understanding to put a timetable on their withdrawal" on 7/9. <link>
As everyone knows, Barack Obama has ran on a platform of a phased withdrawal, that he has reiterated as recently as 7/12, and probably won't back-down from that.
Once again, this is indicative of the normative, monolithic nature of American politics. Its just like Viet Nam; the Tet Offensive made the war unpopular, and the corporate elite decided to begin a phased withdrawal. This time around instead of the Tet Offensive, we have $4 gas. Americans can't possibly be made to give a fuck about anything but their rapidly devaluing currency right now, so anyone who made their way through the layers of ideological filtering to reach a position of political power will make the exact same politically expedient decision.