The New Nation - Internet Edition

BITTERNESS has gone so deep among the war-weary Iraqis that even a cigarette-seller in Baghdad could not trust Barak Obama and termed his pledge of US troops withdrawal from the war-torn country as 'a mere political stunt.' 'The American policy would not change with the change in the presidency, especially the military policy', the 43-year-old cigarette-seller Ali told international news media AFP a day after Obama's recent visit to Baghdad. Senator Obama pledged 'to declare an end to the Iraq war from the first day of his presidency if he wins in November, and to withdraw most US combat troops within 16 months of entering the White House.'

The London-based Reuters news agency also in two dozen interviews across Iraq soon after Obama's visit summed up that many of the Iraqis wearily replied in his favour for being black who 'would rather understand their plight'. An Iraqi doctor in northern Kirkuk said: 'He (Obama) is much better than others because he is black and black people were tyrannised in America. I think he will feel our sufferings.' But Iraqis voiced their scepticism at Obama's pledge to end war. The Iraqis are embittered with the Americans for occupying their country since the 2003-invasion by the Bush administration.

Obama criss-crossed volatile areas of the war-torn country during a two-day trip a week ago to meet US military commanders and troops stationed there and Iraqi leaders, obviously, to apprise himself of the latest situation of the prolonged war launched by outgoing President George W Bush. His visit as senator, the second to the country after the first one in 2006, was intended to bolster his foreign policy credentials and counter accusations from Republican presidential rival John McCain that he had not seen conditions in Iraq for himself. Obama refers to himself as black and often talks of his multi-cultural background.