In this, Obama is following the example of President George W. Bush, who let the US electoral agenda, rather than American – not to mention Iraqi – national interests, dictate Iraq policy. The Bush administration insisted that Iraq achieve various “milestones” – elections for which the country was not ready and completing a constitution in six weeks, to name two – simply to create the appearance of substantive achievements ahead of the 2004 presidential election or the 2006 mid-term elections.
从这个角度看，奥巴马和小布什并无任何区别，他们都是按照美国大选和议程的需要而不是美国的国家利益（更不用说伊拉克的利益）来指导制定伊拉克政策。布什政府坚持认为伊拉克获得了各种具有“里程碑”意义的成就——试举其中两例：一是在该国仓促举行了一场大选，二是在6个星期内制定了一部宪法——而这些只不过是为2004年的换届大选或2006年的中期选举创造实质利好罢了。