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I liked Barack Obama's speech in Philly Tuesday (see today's edit), but his promises about Iraq confuse me.

"I will end this war," he told a small, selected audience in Fayetteville yesterday, adding that in January he'll begin a 16-month drawdown of U.S. troops.

I also heard a radio clip where he said, "I'll bring an end to it in 2009." That would be before he completes the military withdrawal.

Although that doesn't add up, it's not what confuses me. Rather, it's how he equates removing U.S. troops to ending the war.

I mean, if you could "end the war" simply by getting our soldiers out of there, couldn't even George Bush think of that? How about Gen. David Patraeus, who seems to know something about military matters?

Frankly, I don't think Obama really means "end the war" when he says "end the war." I think he's just talking about getting us out of it, and then whatever happens is no concern of ours.

But on this subject I found Obama's former foreign policy advisor Samantha Power more credible when she told a BBC interviewer:

"You can't make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January of 2009. He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. senator. He will rely upon a plan -- an operational plan -- that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn’t have daily access now, as a result of not being the president. So to think -- it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, 'Well, I said it, therefore I'm going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.' "

Like Bush, Obama portrays his Iraq policy as a matter of U.S. national security. But, naturally, they hold opposite views on that point. Bush says it's better for U.S. security to "win" the war in Iraq, and Obama says it's better to get out.

Bush's credibility on the issue is about zero, but he stakes his legacy on the contention that his actions since 9/11 have made America safer. Obama says we're not safer, insisting instead that the war in Iraq has stirred up more terrorists against us. We've been fighting the wrong battle, he charges. He vows to commit more military resources to Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Going on seven years since 9/11, it's an embarrassment that Osama bin Laden is still loose and issuing threats. Securing Afghanistan is an important unfinished job. But here's my worry: If we transfer our military focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, won't the terrorists do the same? Will we have 100,000 or more troops in Afghanistan for years and year, with future presidential candidates promising to "end the war" there?

I'm not faulting Obama. He didn't start any of this but, if he's our next president, he'll have to clean it up -- and I'm not sure anyone can. But that's just it. Knowing how nearly impossible it's going to be to reach a positive outcome in Iraq, it really confuses me how a candidate can make it sound so easy. End the war in 2009? If only.