Obama certainly has a right to his own policy as Commander in Chief. But trying to say that it’s the “will of the Iraqi people” isn’t quite correct. There was an exchange on Meet the Press which examplified getting cover for something that he’s already decided to do:

SEN. CLAIRE McCASKILL (D-MO): Listen, there is nothing inconsistent about Barack Obama’s position on Iraq. From the very beginning of this campaign, he has said very clearly his mindset is we must get out as carefully and as quickly as possible. There is nothing that he has said that contradicts that. Part of getting out carefully and quickly is listening to commanders on the ground. No commander in chief would ever say, “I’m not going to listen to the guys on the ground.” And that’s all he said is he’s going to listen in terms of how we get out. But the mindsets are very different here. You have Barack Obama saying we simply cannot afford, either from a position of national security or our economy, to keep borrowing $10 billion dollars a month from China to be mired in this civil conflict in Iraq, whereas John McCain’s position, his mindset is very clear, “We’re going to stay, and we’re not going to change in terms of our position in Iraq.” So we have two different mindsets, and I think most Americans understand that.

MR. BROKAW: But, let me be clear about this, he says he’ll listen to commanders on the ground. He’s going there. But before he goes there, he says, “The day after I’m inaugurated, I’ll have Joint Chiefs in the office with instructions to get them out in 16 months.”

SEN. McCASKILL: But…

MR. BROKAW: So the real question is why even go if you know that you want to do that in advance?

Logically the process would have been to ask the commanders first and announce the policy later. But since the policy has already been announced what does he expect from the commanders? Insubordination? A pretext to weasel out? Can he actually say, ‘the commanders told me that my policy was infeasible so I’m changing my mind?’ What would that say about Obama’s competence.

I think the best thing all around is for him to make a decision and accept the responsibility. After all that’s what most people do.