Posted on 06/05/2008 11:16:57 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
Ever since they took the reigns of government in 2007, the Democrats have been trying to “end the war” in Iraq by quitting the fight and leaving Iraq in the hands of our enemies.
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None were more opposed to the troop surge than Senator Barack Obama. And no one stood more firmly for the surge than Senator John McCain.
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But a funny thing happened on the way to the Democrat’s Iraqi surrender — we are actually succeeding. It is possible that by the time the next president takes office, our troops could be coming home — under a banner of victory, rather than the shame of defeat.
Even Obama has grudgingly acknowledged success, saying in a recent debate “I welcome the genuine reductions of violence that have taken place.”
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If leaders are judged by their effectiveness, the McCain doctrine was implemented and has succeeded in turning Iraq around, while Obama was unable to get his own party to follow him down the path of defeat.
And if a mark of a leader is the ability to learn from their mistakes, there is no sign Obama even acknowledges his error.
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And his continued insistence on troop withdrawal without preconditions shows a lack of reflection and correction.
In his defense, Obama has little time in national politics and little experience in foreign affairs or the military. He has only been to Iraq once, before the surge. If he finds time to visit Iraq again, he may recognize the surge has succeeded and that now is not the time for a premature and ill-considered retreat.
(Excerpt) Read more at insidenova.com ...
Obama favored a plan to “constrain and condition what the president is doing” and to begin withdrawal “four to six months from now.” He said the surge would make things worse: “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”
Obama introduced legislation which would have started troop withdrawal in May of 2007. In July, Obama told a crowd in New Hampshire “Here’s what we know. The surge has not worked.” In December, he told another audience “The surge is not the solution to Iraq’s problems,” and in a January 2008 response to the State of the Union, said “Bush said that the surge in Iraq is working, when we know that’s just not true.”
In a debate in January of this year, Obama contradicted his previous position, claiming “Now, I had no doubt — and I said at the time … if we place 30,000 more troops in there, then we would see an improvement in the security situation and we would see a reduction in the violence.”
I know that many aren't happy about our candidate. He wasn't my first, second, or third choice.
But one thing is true -- he was an early and vocal opponent of the Surge. He argued strongly for it's adoption, and deserves credit for being right, while Obama was completely wrong.
Look at the wonders democrats are working on energy policy. /s I swear if republicans would get aggressive they could win this thing.
And as my old CPO used to say, "...and if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle."
Liberals are utterly immune to any form of common sense.
John Sidney McCain: I intend to win the war in Iraq. Barack Hussein Obama: I intend to end the war in Iraq.
I am voting for John Sidney McCain for President of the United States because his sole aim is to win the war in Iraq (losing is not an option for McCain).
I am not voting for Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States because his sole aim is to end the war in Iraq (Obama couldn't care less whether the U.S. wins or loses).
Other issues are not unimportant, but one shouldn't lose sight of the cardinal issue: winning the war.
Excellent column, thank you Charles!! It is very helpful to have the contrast between Obama and McCain laid out so well. Obama likes to boast that his “judgment” has been proved correct, when in fact his mis-judgment on the surge was catastrophic and would have led to our premature defeat and surrender.
p.s. Do you have a ping list? I’d like to be on it if you do. I always find your comments on FR most informative, but somehow I had not realized you wrote columns - don’t know if that started recently or if I’ve just been missing these threads, but I’d be grateful to know when you’ve posted a new one. Thanks.
I have a hard time imagining a more shameful time for America than when the Democrats forced us to turn our backs on a people struggling to be free.
And now, they want to repeat it and allow radical Jihadists to take over two countries, which will just postpone the fight with the extremists and force our grandchildren to face a much stronger and bolder enemy than we do today.
That being said, we must not focus on the presidential race only and allow the Democrats to gain a super majority in Congress, either. Even if McCain wins and keeps some of his word on Iraq and Afghanistan, the Dems would have a veto proof majority to impose the shameful liberal hate America agenda on us again.
I don’t have a ping list.
I’ve been writing columns for a little over 3 years, but I only post here occasionally, when they are national or otherwise related to political topics I think people here would be interested in.
A lot of them are local politics, or other, less political things.
I’ve just started using keywords to identify my columns by the tag “criticallythinking” (which is the name of my column), but I haven’t really gone back to tag them all.
Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks, good to know about the “criticallythinking” keyword. I’ll keep an eye out for your upcoming releases!
b. HUSSEIN and typical lib/dems......trying to snatch a US defeat from the jaws of victory!!!
but....they support the troops...so they say!
The Potomac News, eh? Your location explains the craziness of the local responders to your article. >:[
Thanks for your efforts, and keep ‘em coming, please.
Gary Jacobsen is actually another columnist at the paper.
He’s a minor celebrity — he sued a local radio station talk show host for saying Gary hired illegal aliens (after Gary wrote an article that really begged people into believing he hired illegals, but never actually used the word, which he never uses).
The station (WMAL) paid $5,000 to get rid of him. That’s more than I’ve made in 3+ years of writing columns.
I wish I could figure out how to get someone to say something false about one of MY columns :-)
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