Barack Obama has only been president for about a month, and he’s already made it clear that the US military will be entrenching itself in Iraq, not withdrawing. He claimed, “By August 31, 2010, our combat mission will end.”

George W. Bush already ended “combat operations” when he declared “Mission Accomplished” exactly six years ago. Yet the deaths keep tallying up, and Iraqis keep dying. And the country isn’t any safer.

Even if Barack Obama does what he now claims he will do — which is far short of his campaign promises — it will only amount to a 63% withdrawal. Some 50,000 soldiers will still occupy the country, in 53 permanent bases and an embassy bigger than the Vatican. Iraq will complement a daisy-chain of huge airfields for bombers and fighters that rings the western border of Russia and surrounds Iran. Further details can be gleaned from this article, on a blog that was equally critical of Geroge W. Bush on the war.

Instead of removing the soldiers, they are now re-labeled as “training troops,” “counter-terrorism units,” and “protection forces for American interests.” We’re seeing exactly the same Iraq policy as we would have seen if John McCain had won the election. The only thing that has changed is the branding.

That’s right, this isn’t a withdrawal, it’s a re-branding. This is exactly what I feared would happen with an Obama presidency. Absolutely nothing has changed, but instead different policies are renamed and depoliticized. Obama is renaming the Iraq occupation and scaling up the war in Afghanistan, while both are turned into background political issues. While we’re distracted with universal health care and his escalating efforts to fart money all over the slowed economy, the foreign policy will remain exactly the same.

I’ll change the judgement if he reverses his policy, but until then, I have to call Obama a FAILURE on ending the war.