Before a military audience in Denver today, John McCain launched his strongest attack yet against Barack Obama. The attack was devastating because it is true. Here are some excerpts; McCain began by recalling the beginning of the surge:
Senator Obama and I also faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe Senator Obama’s failed.
We both knew the politically safe choice was to support some form of retreat. All the polls said the “surge” was unpopular. Many pundits, experts and policymakers opposed it and advocated withdrawing our troops and accepting the consequences. I chose to support the new counterinsurgency strategy backed by additional troops — which I had advocated since 2003, after my first trip to Iraq. Many observers said my position would end my hopes of becoming president. I said I would rather lose a campaign than see America lose a war. My choice was not smart politics. It didn’t test well in focus groups. It ignored all the polls. It also didn’t matter. The country I love had one final chance to succeed in Iraq. The new strategy was it. So I supported it. Today, the effects of the new strategy are obvious. The surge has succeeded, and we are, at long last, finally winning this war.
Continue reading “Obama can run from the facts: McCain won’t let him hide”
Jul 25 2008
Obama can run from the facts: McCain won’t let him hide
Jul 23 2008
Barack’s extended family is SO proud he’s on tour
to; george@sorosenterprises.com
Dear George,
Barack’s school theater troup is on a field trip. Isn’t he cute? Don’t you just LOVE the way he delivers speeches? Doesn’t he look GREAT up there? He sounds just like one of the grown-ups when he talks, as long as he stays on script.
He looked so adorable playing with the real soldiers. He could so totally play the role of president in a movie.
It’s pretty clear that improvisational theater will never be his thing, but hey, lots of fine actors just learn their lines and deliver them well, with suitable feeling and gesture.
Uncle Charlie, Uncle Brian and Aunt Katie are SO good with the video cameras: we’re all going to have some great home movies. Wasn’t it sweet of them to come along and video Barack’s trip for the rest of the family, and provide helpful narration of his better work? They’re so good at just getting his best performances on tape, and shooting from the best angles, and downplaying the awkward spots, or even just editing them out. We’ll have to have them over for dinner soon. It’s wonderful to have such fine people in the family.
Continue reading “Barack’s extended family is SO proud he’s on tour”
Jul 07 2008
Man bites dog: A positive report on conditions in Iraq from USA today
Even if McCain is elected, there is considerable optimism about beginning pullouts of some troops from Iraq. Of course, a McCain style pullout, hopefully, will not be a complete withdrawal, but rather a reduction to the necessary level to maintain progress that has been made.
Obama, on the other hand, plans a full-on retreat, as quickly as possible, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Gains in Iraq may lead to pullouts – USATODAY.com
Although U.S. commanders are cautious about predicting further withdrawals,
interviews with military experts and recent official statements
indicate growing optimism about the potential to pull out more forces.“I believe the momentum we have is not reversible,” said Jack Keane, a
retired Army vice chief of staff who helped develop the Iraq strategy
adopted by President Bush in January 2007.There will be “significant reductions in 2009 whoever becomes president,” said Keane,
who regularly consults with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander
in Iraq.Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki echoed Keane’s optimism Saturday by declaring that “we defeated” the terrorists in
Iraq. U.S. commanders remain cautious.
Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said recently that “our progress is fragile, and we continue to
work to make this progress irreversible.”Such encouraging reports could benefit both presidential candidates. Republican John
McCain has been a major supporter of Bush’s escalation of U.S. forces
in Iraq. Democratic candidate Barack Obama said he wants to withdraw
all U.S. troops from Iraq in 16 months, although he said any pullout
would be determined by conditions there.
Of course, when Obama speaks of “conditions” in Iraq, he does not mean using them to determine the timing of a pullout, but merely the manner of it. He has “clarified” that the “conditions” phrase just has to do with how to get troops out of Iraq “safely”, not whether the situation in Iraq will remain relatively stable after the pullout.
Jun 29 2008
NYTimes admits oil shortage! Sing hallelujah!
The New York Times has admitted that there is an international oil shortage! Really. Twice in one article!
Continue reading “NYTimes admits oil shortage! Sing hallelujah!”
Jun 28 2008
Only in an open society: the Army shares its self-study
In the sort of move that never happens (at least publicly) in the kinds of nations who oppose the USA, the US Army is about to release a comprehensive self-study on problems with the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq.
The Left would have us believe that the Iraq war and the aftermath have been uniquely bad in US history. While it’s true that the military and civilian authorities underestimated the problems, and misjudged their options (see previous post on groupthink), it’s also true that this has happened in pretty much every war that was ever fought. The truism that “generals always prepare to fight the last war” was not invented last year. By definition, wars are almost always fought badly, and end worse, cost more, and are more complicated to get finished with than anyone hopes.
Continue reading “Only in an open society: the Army shares its self-study”
Jun 28 2008
Throwing away victory: giving up too soon is the way
Just to begin with the usual disclaimer in this discussion: even if you think the war in Iraq was an error from the beginning, you still must deal with the reality we face now. We’re there. After very hard times, some of which could certainly have been avoided, things are looking up.
Grown-ups don’t make policy based on woulda/coulda/shoulda and “let’s pull out and show those darn neo-cons what a disaster they’ve created”. Grown-ups look with clear eyes at the situation as it is and say, “What do we do now?”
Maybe we shouldn’t have bought this particular property on an adjustable rate mortgage, and the monthly bill has been higher than we hoped, but do we declare bankruptcy? Or do some creative financing and restructuring? Or just stick with it, since the worst times seem to be over, and rates are coming down?
Max Boot, writing in Commentary on the complaints of Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall and others about Boot’s comparison of Germany, Japan, etc., to Iraq, with regard to how long we’ll have to keep troops there after major fighting is done:
Lots of people couldn’t imagine when we first intervened in the former Yugoslavia that our troops would stay there for years and that they would not be violently contested. But that is, in fact, what’s happened. Obviously there are major differences between the Balkans and Iraq, which Sullivan and Marshall can no doubt cite ad nauseam. But those deployments also show the kind of long-term role that U.S. troops can play.
The broader point is that the success of American military interventions has usually been closely related to their length. The longer we stay, the more successful we are. When we get out too quickly–as we did in Haiti in the 1990’s–the situation often goes to hell. So if we want to secure a lasting victory in Iraq we need to stay around for a good long while.
But I get the sense that Marshall and Sullivan, like many of their antiwar compatriots, don’t really care about whether we win or lose in Iraq. They simply want to get out, and damn the consequences. That brings up another historical analogy that I’m sure they would rather forget: the way we pulled out of South Vietnam after the defeat of the North’s Tet and Easter Offensives when a decent outcome (namely the long-term preservation of South Vietnam’s independence) was within our grasp. A lot of antiwar voices back then said it would actually be good for the locals if we left, just as they now say it would be good for Iraq if we skedaddled. Tell it to the Vietnamese boat people or the victims of the Cambodian killing fields.
It’s worth reading all of it, and reading Boot’s original thoughts as well.
Obama can claim his righteous foresight and ideological purity about the Iraq war all he wants, but that still doesn’t make him the person to manage our current situation. He seems more interested in acting out on his righteous indignation than making sound policy based on the realities we face. We can only hope that, if he wins, his advisers will gradually move him away from extreme, preemptive withdrawal that will throw away everything the surge has gained.
I hope his policy, if elected, will be something more than a childish, “I TOLD you so, and now I’m going to show YOU!”
President TrainingWheels, indeed, if that is the case.
I hope he reads Michael Yon’s book.
hat tip: Powerline
Jun 28 2008
You have to want to know the truth, and you have to do what’s right
Michael Yon is former special forces soldier turned war journalist, and author of the very important book, Moment of Truth in Iraq.
He has a dispatch up, titled On Joe Galloway, ostensibly about another journalist, but it covers so much ground, and works on so many levels, that I think it’s worth reading in full. It is ostensibly about the use of torture to get intelligence from terrorists and suspects, but it’s really about a great deal more. It’s really about how we make decisions, how we validate our ideas, where we get our ideas, and why we do what’s right. Though he generally supports the aims of the Iraq war, he is no blinkered ideologue. A sampling:
Continue reading “You have to want to know the truth, and you have to do what’s right”
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