Contested Terrain: Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Plan and the Peace Movement

The meaning of President Obama's Iraq withdrawal speech, and its influence on real U.S. policy in Iraq, will not be determined solely by his actual words. The import of the speech - and whether its promises become real - will be determined by a fluid combination of what Obama says, his own definitions of what he says, AND the disparate ways his speech is heard, perceived, described and contested by others - the mainstream media, Congress, the military, other centers of elite power, and crucially, the peace movement.