After months vowing to get US troops home from Iraq, Barack Obama has succumbed to the war's political entanglements, struggling to explain his plan in the light of recent security gains.
More than five years after the US invasion, the Iraq war is now enmeshing not only the Bush administration which started it, but both men fighting to inherit it, Democratic White House hopeful Obama and Republican John McCain.
Obama is torn between a vow to end the war, which underpinned his win over Democratic foe Hillary Clinton and Republican claims his plan invites US humiliation, would delight terrorists and waste gains bought in American blood. The war remains broadly unpopular, but it has fallen behind the economy as the top campaign issue after a lull in violence.
Under rising Republican pressure, Obama on Thursday said he may "refine" his policies after meeting US commanders in Iraq on a trip expected this month.
But hours later, he hurriedly called a second press conference to insist he had not made the "flip flop" on Iraq that many observers are expecting, as he retools his message for the political center ground.
"I have seen no information that contradicts the notion that we can bring our troops out safely at a pace of one to two brigades per month," a frustrated Obama said.
"My first day in office, I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in, and I will give them a new mission, and that is to end this war. Obama says he can get most US combat troops home within 16 months, leaving behind a smaller force to fight terrorism and protect the US embassy.
He wants to redirect resources to Afghanistan, where more US and coalition troops were killed last month than in Iraq.
On Saturday, the Illinois senator chided the media, saying he had been "puzzled" by the media "frenzy" set off by his comments. But the episode exposed him to Republican charges he was inexperienced, indecisive, confused on Iraq and ready to ditch past positions to win.
It also highlighted Iraq's lingering capacity to wreak political chaos, the subtle balancing act Obama must pursue. "The needle that he has to thread is staying on message and linking McCain to Iraq inexorably, while taking half a step backward from the most forceful enunciations of his desire to get out," said analyst Justin Logan, of the Cato Institute. The McCain campaign relished Obama's struggles, claiming he had finally endorsed his rival's strategy on Iraq.
Obama is still vulnerable to McCain's attacks should he ultimately decide not to shift policy.
"If indeed he's going to go to Iraq and nothing that he sees will change or impact his decision-making on this, then why is he going?" said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. "If it's just to check a box politically, then it represents the kind of cynical politics that the American people are pretty sick and tired of."
While he enjoyed his rival's struggles, McCain, despite being an early critic of Bush war policy, and early advocate of the surge, is still in a dicey spot.
His reluctance to pull US troops out quickly appears at odds with much of American public opinion, and brackets him with the highly unpopular President George W. Bush. "We have had an administration and we have, in John McCain, a theory of Iraq that we should just indicate that we will stay there indefinitely and one day, perhaps the Iraqis will wake up and decide that they're willing to work through their differences and reconcile," said Susan Rice, a top Obama foreign policy aide.
"Barack Obama's view is that that has not succeeded five years in, and moreover it's unsustainable." According to the latest CNN/Opinion Research poll, 30 percent of Americans favour, and 68 percent now oppose the war.
Sixty-four percent believe US troop numbers should be cut, compared to 33 percent who think they should remain the same.
Costas Panagopoulos, of Fordham University's elections and campaign management program, argued that while the Iraq trip could help Obama show flexibility, politics might dictate otherwise. "It's an opportunity for him to nuance his position if he wants to, but I am not sure that's a particularly wise strategy, "It seems on both the right and the left that most people more or less agree with his position on the issue of Iraq."
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