Barack Obama, after his trip to Iraq:
"Here is what I will say," Obama said, "I think that, I did not anticipate, and I think that this is a fair characterization, the convergence of not only the surge but the Sunni awakening in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decided that they had had enough with Al Qaeda, in the Shii’a community the militias standing down to some degrees. So what you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, I think that my assessment would have been correct."Come on, Senator, you can do it.
Obama maintained that his decision was not wrong.I guess he can't do it. Maybe he's considering the plight of the anti-warriors. That many heads exploding would make a big mess.
Could you be married to a person who can't admit error? No wonder Michelle always seems PO'd. :-)
(Thanks to Ace of Spades HQ)
My favorite was Obama saying that even if he knew then what he knows now he would still have opposed the surge for political reasons.
Because, as PowerLine put it, he'd rather lose a war than lose an election.
Which pretty much sums up the Democrats for the last five years.
Posted by: Tully | July 22, 2008 at 10:08 AM
What cracks me up is his reference to "the [Shia] militias standing down to some degrees."
No, Barry. They were knocked down. Hard.
He comes very close to a frequent refrain from war opponents: the surge worked because our soldiers got lucky in that the Iraqis decided to go easy on us. Feh.
Posted by: Casey | July 22, 2008 at 12:31 PM
This Surge is not the Surge that I knew back then, but I could no more dismiss my opinion than dismiss my own grandmother.
Posted by: Cobb | July 22, 2008 at 06:58 PM