Giuliani: Obama mind made up before trip

NEW YORK, July 22 (UPI) -- Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday it appears U.S. Sen. Barack Obama had his mind made up before his trip this week to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Giuliani, a former Republican Party presidential candidate, told NBC's "Today Show" he doesn't understand how Obama, D-Ill., can insist, after seeing the results in Iraq, that he would still oppose the troop surge that has led to as much as an 80-percent reduction in violence.

"The only reason (Prime Minister Nouri) al-Maliki is talking about a possible withdrawal in 2010 is because the surge has worked ...," Giuliani said. "So I think it either indicates that Senator Obama is not on a fact-finding mission, because the facts don't seem to affect him or Senator Obama has a stubbornness of wanting to stick to his political position, which now turns out to be incorrect."

At a news conference in Amman, Jordan, Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, said it's possible his approach to Iraq would have worked just as well.

"We don't know what would have happened if I -- if the plan that I had put forward in January 2007 to put more pressure on the Iraqis to arrive at a political reconciliation, to begin a phased withdrawal -- what would have happened had we pursued that strategy," Obama said, adding, "The U.S. military can't be there forever."