Obama's Plan for Defeat

Discussion in 'West Mall' started by ousuxndallas, Jun 13, 2008.

  1. ousuxndallas

    ousuxndallas 500+ Posts

    Good read by Charles Krauthammer:


    Obama's Plan for Defeat
    Charles Krauthammer
    Friday, June 13, 2008

    WASHINGTON -- In his St. Paul victory speech, Barack Obama pledged again to pull out of Iraq . Rather than "continue a policy in Iraq that asks everything of our brave men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi politicians. ... It's time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future."

    We know Obama hasn't been to Iraq in more than two years, but does he not read the papers? Does he not know anything about developments on the ground? Here is the "nothing" that Iraqis have been doing in the last few months:

    1. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sent the Iraqi army into Basra . It achieved in a few weeks what the British had failed to do in four years: take the city, drive out the Mahdi Army and seize the ports from Iranian-backed militias.

    2. When Mahdi fighters rose up in support of their Basra brethren, the Iraqi army at Maliki's direction confronted them and prevailed in every town -- Najaf, Karbala, Hilla, Kut, Nasiriyah and Diwaniyah -- from Basra to Baghdad.

    3. Without any American ground forces, the Iraqi army entered and occupied Sadr City , the Mahdi Army stronghold.

    4. Maliki flew to Mosul , directing a joint Iraqi-U.S. offensive against the last redoubt of al-Qaeda, which had already been driven out of Anbar, Baghdad and Diyala provinces.

    5. The Iraqi parliament enacted a de-Baathification law, a major Democratic benchmark for political reconciliation.

    6. Parliament also passed the other reconciliation benchmarks -- a pension law, an amnesty law, and a provincial elections and powers law. Oil revenues are being distributed to the provinces through the annual budget.

    7. With Maliki having demonstrated that he would fight not just Sunni insurgents (e.g., in Mosul ) but Shiite militias (e.g., the Mahdi Army), the Sunni parliamentary bloc began negotiations to join the Shiite-led government. (The final sticking point is a squabble over a sixth Cabinet position.)

    The disconnect between what Democrats are saying about Iraq and what is actually happening there has reached grotesque proportions. Democrats won an exhilarating electoral victory in 2006 pledging withdrawal at a time when conditions in Iraq were dire and we were indeed losing the war. Two years later, when everything is changed, they continue to reflexively repeat their "narrative of defeat and retreat" (as Joe Lieberman so memorably called it) as if nothing has changed.

    It is a position so utterly untenable that John McCain must seize the opportunity and, contrary to conventional wisdom, make the Iraq War the central winning plank of his campaign. Yes, Americans are war-weary. Yes, most think we should not have engaged in the first place. Yes, Obama will keep pulling out his 2002 speech opposing the war.

    But McCain's case is simple. Is not Obama's central mantra that this election is about the future not the past? It is about 2009, not 2002. Obama promises that upon his inauguration, he will order the Joint Chiefs to bring him a plan for withdrawal from Iraq within 16 months. McCain says that upon his inauguration, he'll ask the Joint Chiefs for a plan for continued and ultimate success.

    The choice could not be more clearly drawn. The Democrats' one objective in Iraq is withdrawal. McCain's one objective is victory.

    McCain's case is not hard to make. Iraq is a three-front war -- against Sunni al-Qaeda, against Shiite militias and against Iranian hegemony -- and we are winning on every front:

    -- We did not go into Iraq to fight al-Qaeda. The war had other purposes. But al-Qaeda chose to turn it into the central front in its war against America . That choice turned into an al-Qaeda fiasco: al-Qaeda in Iraq is now on the run and in the midst of stunning and humiliating defeat.

    -- As for the Shiite extremists, the Mahdi Army is isolated and at its weakest point in years.

    -- Its sponsor, Iran , has suffered major setbacks, not just in Basra , but in Iraqi public opinion, which has rallied to the Maliki government and against Iranian interference through its Sadrist proxy.

    Even the most expansive American objective -- establishing a representative government that is an ally against jihadists, both Sunni and Shiite -- is within sight.

    Obama and the Democrats would forfeit every one of these successes to a declared policy of fixed and unconditional withdrawal. If McCain cannot take to the American people the case for the folly of that policy, he will not be president. Nor should he be.

    Give the speech, senator. Give it now.
     
  2. reckoner11

    reckoner11 25+ Posts

    Although I disagree, it's nice to see something attacking him on policy for a change rather than trying to tell me how he's a radical muslim who will bring about the end of times.
     
  3. bierce

    bierce 1,000+ Posts

    And the majority of the Iraqi Parliament wants a clear commitment for US troops to leave before any new security agreement is reached.
    The Link

    Let's not forget that little point.
     
  4. accuratehorn

    accuratehorn 10,000+ Posts

    I must have missed it-does someone have a plan for "victory?"
     
  5. washparkhorn

    washparkhorn 2,500+ Posts


     
  6. libertytxn

    libertytxn 100+ Posts

    Yea keep them eyes closed real tight for the next few months or you might have to admit to an US victory in Iraq!
     
  7. Fievel121

    Fievel121 2,500+ Posts

    Victory??? Really??? Sweet we finally found the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Thats freakin awesome! And we have Osama!!!
     
  8. Black Ninja

    Black Ninja 500+ Posts

  9. FondrenRoad

    FondrenRoad 1,000+ Posts

    "Yeah - it's called the Petraeus Doctrine. Perhaps you missed it. Oh, and it's working."

    Yep. Keep massive levels of boots on the ground and it keeps the people passive. Remove them and they start fighting again. Excellent plan. So now victory means keeping massive levels of troops in Iraq forever. Outstanding.

    Let's see. 60 years of Soviet oppression in the Balkans. Relative peace. Its working!! Remove Soviet oppression, and the same ethnic violence that always happened before, happens again.
     
  10. rickysrun

    rickysrun 2,500+ Posts

    We better hurry up and win, the ice around my champagne is starting to melt
     
  11. stabone

    stabone 500+ Posts

    I feel like I read this same thread over and over again.
     
  12. Super

    Super 500+ Posts

    Krauthammer said that?

    Well I'm convinced. How can reality compete with HIS credibility?

    Frogive my poor memory, wash, but how many more Freidman cycles until the Petraeus Doctrine brings the much anticipated victory?
     
  13. Chooky

    Chooky 100+ Posts

    In reply to:


     
  14. HornsOverIthaca

    HornsOverIthaca 250+ Posts


     
  15. LonghornLawyer

    LonghornLawyer 500+ Posts


     
  16. Longhorn_Fan68

    Longhorn_Fan68 1,000+ Posts

    Krauthammer is an awesome name, btw.
     
  17. naked_bongo

    naked_bongo 500+ Posts

    Nice post, Chooky.
     
  18. Chooky

    Chooky 100+ Posts

    LL --
    I always enjoy your posts, especially when they're of the haughty and gnashing style like your last one. And I'm dead serious about that.

    Personally, I wouldn't trade one American life for what we've accomplished, thus far, for those primitive, hateful religious freaks in Iraq. Perhaps that's a dash of xenophobia, on my part, peaking out of a keyboard foxhole. But that's only my opinion. And, of course, we both know that my opinion is the least relevant factor when it comes to the limbs being blown off of some of the best young people this country has to offer. Equally as relevant would be my fast food, crash course in foreign policy.

    Flip the coin again, amigo. What amount of chaos or success is enough for you to believe that it's time to wind this profoundly expensive debacle down? Things are going great, so we have to stay. Things are going poorly, so we have to stay. When? How long can we afford this? This is a sincere question.

    What I said above is that I don't think any of this is worth what we've paid in blood or finance. At this juncture, however, I don't necessarily believe that we can vacate. Honestly, I don't know. If it were up to me I'd say sorry and goodbye.

    I don't know where that positions me in the "intellectual honesty" contest. Perhaps in the NIT ranks? Again, I'm not sure.

    Krauthammer is definitely a fun name, LF68. Adelhard Aryan Dasrufflepants needs to write more.
     
  19. Michael Knight

    Michael Knight 1,000+ Posts

  20. LurkerintheDark

    LurkerintheDark 250+ Posts


     
  21. Turd of Doom

    Turd of Doom 250+ Posts


     

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