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I ended the war in Iraq” is now a standard claim by President Obama. He makes the assertion in every debate and public appearance. The claim is wrong. It’s phony, and it’s made by a politician who tried relentlessly to block America’s most successful strategic operation of the war: the “surge.” On Feb. 5, 2007, and a few weeks later on Feb. 17, Sen. Obama voted against the surge. Among military analysts and historians, the surge of 20,000 additional troops into Iraq during the spring of 2007 is credited with reducing attacks on American troops and sectarian violence by 70...

Well what a difference the prospect of success makes. Back when, then Senator, Obama seemed convinced that the “surge” in Iraq would spell disaster and stated that he would actively oppose it. Now that Iraq seems well on the road to stability President Obama is singing a different tune. For those out there with a short memory (sycophants, acolytes and liberal progressives) here is a little reminder…

Remember when the liberals ripped Bush apart because there weren't enough National Guardsmen to help in disasters because they're off in Iraq/Kuwait? Now Hussein has promised an all-out effort to help Haiti. We just had the biggest national guard deployment since World War II in Florida...the state closest to Haiti. So when will the liberal media (national and local) ask if Hussein's troop surge is hindering our efforts to help our neighbors?

Trip to Norway Reignites Debate Over Obama's Qualifications for Prestigious Award. There is a bit of irony in that just 10 days after announcing the deployment of 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan, President Obama will accept the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Thursday in Oslo, Norway. the White House said he will acknowledge that he accepts the peace prize as a war president. Aides said he will address Afghanistan and the decision to add troops there and present it in the overall context of the award he is accepting. The peace prize sparked considerable debate over Obama's qualifications: Was his...

WASHINGTON - Civilian partnerships, in combination with military efforts, are crucial to success in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Senate Armed Services Committee, Dec. 2. The current civilian effort would expand through a "civilian surge" if Congress approves Obama's strategy for the way ahead, Clinton said. "Civilian experts and advisors are helping to craft policy inside [Afghan] government ministries, providing development assistance in the field, and working in scores of other roles," the secretary said. "When our Marines went into Nawa this July, we had civilians on the ground with them to coordinate assistance the next...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that setting a deadline would embolden the Taliban and al Qaeda...

As you watch Obama talk about his troop surge, here's what he thought during the Bush troop surge...May make you angry....(Video)

Most people expect Barack Obama to lay off some of the blame for the directionless policy on Afghanistan this year on George Bush in his speech tonight at West Point. Lee Siegel at the Daily Beast expects Obama to come across as closer to his predecessor than Obama might imagine. When it comes to pursuing the war in Afghanistan, Siegel — a war opponent — sees Obama as Bush Lite, and the speech as a manipulation of high order:

BARACK Obama is just days away from committing up to 35,000 additional US troops to the war in Afghanistan as part of a revitalised military strategy against the Taliban. The US President was understood to be close to a final decision last night on the details of an Afghanistan surge in the new year, following a meeting of his war cabinet at the White House. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days." Military sources...

Gen. Stanley McChrystal,the General in Charge of US forces in Afghanistan is about to ask Barack Obama the same question that John Rambo asked his superior at the beginning of Rambo II "Sir,Do we get win this time?" During the campaign President Obama defined Iraq as a "bad war" and Afghanistan the "good war," so it was no surprise when the POTUS put securing Afghanistan near the top of his agenda. What was surprising was an interview he gave where he said "victory" in the Afghanistan isn't necessarily the United States' goal. "I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,'...

ROME (AFP) – General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia and credited with boosting security in Iraq, said Tuesday that he has recommended a major troop surge in Afghanistan. Petraeus said he had "already made recommendations" for an almost doubling of US troops in Afghanistan based on requests from General David McKiernan, the top commander of US and NATO troops in the central Asian country. Petraeus is widely credited for turning around a Sunni insurgency in western Iraq with a 30,000 troop "surge" to secure Baghdad and its environs during his tenure as...

The successes of President Bush's troop surge in Iraq are quieting things down in another, unexpected place: the Democratic campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire. Iraq seldom comes up these days - even for Hillary Clinton, who was grilled relentlessly on her vote to authorize the war when she launched her campaign. "We haven't heard as much bad news out of Iraq lately," Camp Clinton has been playing her experience as its trump card. If Americans are less worried about an uncertain world, it could play more like a deuce. But rivals, including Obama, have relied on voters who...

BAGHDAD — U.S. troops battled Al Qaeda in west Baghdad after Sunni Arab residents challenged the militants and called for American help to end furious gunfire that kept students from final exams and forced people in the neighborhood to huddle indoors. Backed by helicopter gunships, U.S. troops on Thursday joined the two-day battle in the Amariyah district, according to a councilman and other residents of the Sunni district. The fight reflects a trend that U.S. and Iraqi officials have been trumpeting recently to the west in Anbar province, once considered the heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Many Sunni tribes in...

Hypocrisy has a Human Price on the Streets of Baghdad By Rocco DiPippo Author's note: Some names in this piece have been changed to protect individual identities. I have observed first-hand the effects of the Bush Administration's new Iraq security plan since it began two months ago. Street violence in Baghdad and surrounding areas has declined. Shops and markets once boarded up are reopening. Iraqi civilians are venturing out onto the streets again and living their lives with less fear of being persecuted, tortured, maimed or killed. To be sure, there is still plenty of terror and violence in Iraq,...

APPROVAL RATINGS FOR CONGRESS DIPPING (AGAIN) Many of the newbies rode into town and thought they were going to shine like radiant little stars. After all, they had been promised --and had promised the taxpayers back home -- that they were about to solve all the problems of the western world. And maybe even Antarctica, since that was a subject that also warmed their hearts. Little did they realize that there would actually be people in Washington who did not agree with them. Nobody ever told them that. Here they thought they'd be insulated from those mean old Republicans and...

Mr Bush plans to send 21,500 additional US troops to Iraq No-one is declaring victory, but the first few days of the new security operation in Baghdad have seen a significant fall in violence.The commander of the US side of the operation, Maj Gen Joseph Fil, said: "There's an air of suspense throughout the city... Many of these extremists are laying low and watching us to see what we do and how we do it." The Americans are working to a much more aggressive military doctrine than before. The frequent presence of a B1 "Lancer" bomber - making a...

After yesterday's 'Non-binding' resolution was passed, the Democrats have sent out an email, received at my throwaway address. Of course, all the self congratulatory stuff and bashing of Republicans is in it. To: "Lew Waters" {Me@I’llnevertell.com} From: "Brian Wolff, DCCC Executive Director" {dccc@dccc.org} Subject: Keeping Our Promise Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 08:47:15 -0500 Dear Lewis, Democrats campaigned on the promise to take America in a new direction -- both at home and in Iraq. We have kept our promises. In less than 100 Hours, House Democrats delivered: passing legislation to raise the minimum wage, voted to invest in stem...

[Paragraph 1] REP. JOHN MURTHA (D-Pa.) has a message for anyone who spent the week following the House of Representatives' marathon debate on Iraq: You've been distracted by a sideshow. "We have to be careful that people don't think this is the vote," the 74-year-old congressman said of the House's 246-182 decision in favor of a resolution disapproving of President Bush's troop surge. "The real vote will come on the legislation we're putting together." That would be Mr. Murtha's plan to "stop the surge" and "force a redeployment" of U.S. forces from Iraq while ducking the responsibility that should come...

A National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq requested by Congress last August that was presented to President Bush yesterday, suggests civil strife is spiraling out of control in Iraq, though the 90-page classified document stops short of concluding that the Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence has reached a state of civil war, reports The Washington Post: The document emphasizes that although al-Qaeda activities in Iraq remain a problem, they have been surpassed by Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence as the primary source of conflict and the most immediate threat to U.S. goals. Iran, which the administration has charged with supplying and directing Iraqi extremists, is mentioned but...

Destroying a president is not much of a strategy to win a war, but it's all the Democrats have. The churls of the left don't seem to care whether their country wins the war, the important thing is to "keep hate alive." If hate worked in '06, maybe it will work again in '08, when the stakes will be considerably higher. Sometimes it's not only hate, but a bit of schadenfreude, too, taking pleasure in the woes of the enemy. "Partisan pleasure in George Bush's pain dates to the anguish of the contested 2000 election loss," observes Daniel Henninger in...