Double Talk on Iraq

The Obama "Spin Machine" has been working in hyper-spin ever since Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, expressed his opinion that American troops could be out of Iraq by the end of 2010 (See Full Story). Suddenly, this comment by Nouri al-Maliki has become a certification of Obama's 16-month withdrawal plan and, in turn, a rejection of McCain's draw-down of troops as the conditions improve on the ground. But, let's be realistic about what is really being said. Nouri al-Maliki is saying, right now, that he "thinks" it would be OK to remove troops by the end of 2010. That's 30 months from now. Let's not forget that, last year, Obama was all for "yanking" the troops out of Iraq "by" March 2008; and, if he could, he would start puling the troops out, today, using his 16-month time frame. He would have pulled troops in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. He has clearly "implied" this in his numerous campaign speeches. You tell me. How is pulling all the troops out in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and by March of "2008" somehow "consistent" with having our troops out at the "end" of 2010?

At the "very" end of January of 2007, Barack Obama introduced his Senate bill: "Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007" (See Full Story). If it had been up to Barack Obama and his Senate proposal, we "would" have been pulling the troops out of Iraq in early 2007 and, at a time when the fighting in that country was at its "peak" and with U.S. Military deaths running above 130 deaths per month. Now, he says that no one really knows what would have happened it we had proceeded with his plan instead of the "Surge". I guess he seems to think that reducing troop strength at the literal "height" of fighting would have rendered the same or better results than the "Surge". That's a military strategy that I had never quite heard of!

As mandated by Obama's "Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007", our troops "wouldn't" have been pulled out of Iraq based within Obama's current 16-months time frame; but, instead, in about a year. And, worse yet, his Senate bill would have completely blocked the "Troop Surge" that has literally stabilized the country in the last 10 months. Now, if you listen to Obama, he claims that he hasn't changed his position on our exit from Iraq. Also, now, he seems to imply that he was sure that the additional troops (the "Surge") would have had a positive impact on the war. However, back then, he claimed that additional troops would have "escalated" the fighting and made things worse in that country.

I have no better proof that John McCain was right and Obama was wrong on the "Troop Surge" than this article, "Analysis: US now winning Iraq war that seemed lost," by the hardly-ever-positive-on-Iraq Associated Press (See Full Story). Also, it should be pointed out that there has only been "eleven" military deaths in Iraq as of today. The lowest number in any month, ever. Further, there hasn't been a single military death in Iraq since July 17th; eleven days. This is the longest stretch ever since the war began. The previous record days without a death was 4 days. In the darkest days of that war, there were no less than 6 military deaths per day; every day.

In recent interviews, Obama has made it clear that he will maintain a residual force to protect our embassy and to continue to train Iraqis and ferret out Al Qaeda. This clearly implies a long-term committment in Iraq. A committment that Obama chided McCain for when McCain said we could be in Iraq for 50 or 100 years. Again, McCain was right.

Too many of Obama's comments and policies have been totally wrong; like the effect of the "Troop Surge" or the "Gun Ban" in Washington D.C. But, Obama will never admit that he was wrong. The liberal press has generally ignored this obvious stubbornness. However, we are now seeing some of the most liberal newspapers in America getting on his back for his failure to recognize the success in Iraq (See Full Story) At least John McCain, when he was on the wrong side of Immigration, said that he "got the message" and changed his position!

Image by heraldpost's photostream on Flickr with Creative Commons Licensing (Click to View Other Works).