NEW YORK, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Thursday said redeployment of U.S troops is the best, and possibly only, leverage the United States has with the Iraqi government.
Obama said on NBC's "Today" show that President George W. Bush's plans to "surge" more troops into Iraq is too open-ended and fails to do enough to prod the Iraqis into reaching a political solution to the ongoing sectarian violence.
"That's not the message that was sent," said Obama, who may enter the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. "So there is no evidence that they're going to significantly change behavior."
He said Congress supported the troops in-country but was not willing to have them "baby-sit" a civil war.
Some analysts have opined that a political solution won't be possible until the security situation is improved. Obama, however, said that he hasn't seen any concrete signs from the Baghdad government that it is willing to accommodate both Sunni and Shiite communities.
