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BARACK OBAMA’s administration has promised to withdraw all American troops from all of Iraq’s towns by the end of this month. As the deadline looms, people are again asking whether Iraq’s forces will be able to cope on their own. On cue, a fresh bout of violence has erupted. On June 20th, a huge lorry bomb exploded in Taza, a Turkmen town just south of the disputed city of Kirkuk, killing at least 70 people. Two days later at least seven bombs went off in and around Baghdad, including a roadside blast, a car bomb and a suicide attack, killing...

On Monday, in an opinion piece published in the New York Post, I suggested that Senator Barack Obama had urged Iraqi leaders to postpone making an agreement with the United States until there was a new administration in Washington. I said this because Obama himself had said it.

Congressional Democrats anxious to force a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq are frustrated by their inability to muster a veto-proof majority for legislation that would establish a firm date for retreat. But what they cannot do directly they are now working hard to do indirectly. According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey is the transshipment point for about 70% of all air cargo (including 33% of the fuel) going to supply US forces in Iraq. Included are about 95% of the new “MRAP” -- mine-resistant, ambush-protected -- vehicles designed to save the lives of...

f you thought the handwringing among the cast of Hamilton over the impending Trump presidency was bad, it apparently does not compare to the growing despair among the Obama White House team. What has them most upset? The elevation of Steve Bannon or Jeff Sessions? No, it turns out that the most “devastating blow” was the selection of a fellow Democrat – Lt. Gen. Michael Fynn – as National Security Advisor. The Associated Press reports: As Obama hopped from capital to capital, news of the emerging Trump administration followed him, dominating news conferences and private meetings with leaders…. Each time...

President Barack Obama's nominee to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq withdrew his name on Monday after Republican lawmakers questioned his suitability following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a journalist who later became his wife. Brett McGurk, a long-time Iraq expert who had served on the Bush administration's National Security Council, wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he was withdrawing "with a heavy heart." "I believe it is in the best interests of the country, and our life together, to withdraw my nomination and serve in another...

Earlier this week, the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., seized upon a column in the New York Post that described Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as having urged Iraqi leaders in a private meeting to delay coming to an agreement with the Bush administration on the status of U.S. troops. "Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a drawdown of the American military presence," Post columnist Amir Taheri wrote, quoting Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who told the Post that Obama, during his meeting with Iraqi leaders in July, "asked why we were...

"No one should miscalculate America's resolve and commitment to helping support the Iraqi democracy. -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, October 23, 2011 "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. " -- George Orwell, May 1945 "We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue. ... The only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield." -- George Orwell, March 22, 1946 I offer up George Orwell' second quote...

It may not be "Mission accomplished," but we are getting closer. Yesterday, the United States completed the process of withdrawing from Iraq's cities. American forces closed or turned over to Iraqi authorities 150 bases and facilities. The Iraqis are happy to see us go, and we are glad to be leaving.

The verbal gymnastics of Barack Obama and his surrogates on Iraq is just mind-numbing! Today on Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw zeroed in on Obama surrogate Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and clearly demonstrated how contorted Obama's shifting positions on an Iraq Withdrawal have become. Listen to this exchange . . . (see video) You can tell that Brokaw is disbelieving of the fact that Obama is actually continuing to say pompously that he will "call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff on his first day in office" and "give them a new mission." That mission being - Get our...