The Success of the Surge Seemingly Puts Obama on the Defensive

Every single person with more than half a brain knows that the surge was a complete success.

You can review the posts here, and see who the people are that disagree with that statement.

You can then look and see who they support for president.

You can draw your own conclusion from that.

WHo knew. Baghdad IS Iraq. Or not. Baghdad is secure but about half the nation is NOT. The surge was NOT supposed to be about securing Baghdad alone. It was to secure the COUNTRY, that includes restoring the basic services that many areas still don't have, get the Iraqi government working, and we get out.

From what I can see, as usually, the Republicans moved the goal post and the MSM went along, failing to do do its own research and recall why we did it in the first place.

The surge worked? Did anyone in the "journalism" business bother to ask how many war contractors we managed to hire to fight this "war" in Iraq during this surge? Are their levels higher or lower than before "the surge"? No, you didn't. Because the American media and Congress is too lazy or too scared to obtain or report the truth. You've been patsies to this President since the day he took office. If that surge worked so well, why are we still in Iraq? Ask McCain, how many soldiers is he will to sacrifice each month for him to consider our troops "out of harms way". American Journalists are a disgrace to the American education system. Or maybe just an example.

The surge is working ... another media invention. The same people who got this war in Iraq wrong are now claiming throwing additional troops in Iraq a success.

The people who got the war in Iraq right are again being ignored.

Violence is down in Iraq ...why ... Sunni in Anbar provence decided ... as they had decided before Bush and McCain invaded Iraq and allowed Alquaida to come in to Iraq ... to throw Alquaida out ... nothing to do with the surge.

Violence is down in Iraq ... why ... two million Iraqis are in neighboring countries as refugees and those neighborhoods in Iraq that were mixed have been ethnicly cleansed ... again nothing to do with the surge.

There's a word in our office for people who take credit for things other people do ... putz comes to mind.

"Holes in Barack Obama's foreign affairs resume are spurring doubt about his readiness for a crisis" ... crisis have come up in this campaign so that we know exactly how Obama will react.

It is media outlets like abc who are trying to create the perception of doubt ... it is called projection.

It is media outlets like abc that are trying create the perception of leadership by McCain although in no facet of his life has he ever been a leader ... rebel without a cause yes ... leader no.

It is media outlets like abc that are trying create the perception of good judgement in McCain although in no facet of his life has he ever shown good judgement.

And when challenged on this McCain and media hide behind a service record that ... in light of McCains inability to keep his story straight as far as what teams names he recited as pilots when he was questioned by captors ... seems to be made up out of whole clothe.

The failure of Obama to make the right decision in support of the surge which has produced numerous benefits to different parts of our operations in Iraq.....so now we are supposed to follow Obama into Afghanistan and Pakistan, have unconditional talks with Iran, etc? Who is he kidding?

"Having Obama as Commander in Chief would be analogous to having a 6 year old girl as the head coach of the New England Patriots."

it could, just let the msm 'report' the results of the games.

Having Obama as Commander in Chief would be analogous to having a 6 year old girl as the head coach of the New England Patriots. Come on libs, grow up and vote for a President, vote John McCain.

I predict a long hot summer for Obama

Well.. I think that both McCain and Obama distort the truth significantly. None of them is bright, and self-consistent. I can smell the decline of the US foreign policy, if any of these two guys continue G.W's legacy.

I do not agree with McCain on abortion but I think that he seems to be a more honest man in general. He is like a nice grandpa, though Obama does not do anything for me!

So Obama blatently lies about his support of the surge today and there are still people dumb enough to believe him? Some people will never learn that this guy is a huge fraud.

We stayed in Germany/Europe because of the threat of the USSR. There is no similar threat in the Middle East. I'm sure someone will try to repackage missing WMD, or Photoshopped Iranian missiles as a threat. Sorry kids, there's no threat.

The Iraqis wanted us out ASAP in 2003, and as we have seen again in 2008. This makes perfect sense. But in a US election year, a war started for political purposes again becomes a set piece for the next act of political theater.

That Obama is "flip-flopping" is another invention of the GOP. They need something to complain about, I suppose.

One interesting thing about the GOP and the mad drive to "stay the course": if they were football coaches, they'd lose every game. As we all know, teams that have the ability to assess and make adjustments at halftime tend to win. As fans, we look forward to it.

Many of the great generals and tacticians we read about achieved their victories by changing course. But not the great modern GOP politicians

If these guys were lost, would they have the brains to stop and ask for directions? Or would they just continue in the wrong direction because asking for directions is "flip-flopping?"

“TRANSLATING” JOHN McCAIN”

McCain: “The ‘surge’ has been an enormous success”!

Translation:

This is complete BS. The main reason for the reduction of violence in Iraq is because we are paying almost a million dollars a day to the Sunni Sahwah Councils so that their militias will not fight us. The going rate is now $10 US per day to each of the approximately 80,000 Sunni militia. I have absolutely no doubt that we are paying the Shia (Sadr Army) as well.

McCain: “We will need to have a presence in Iraq for years”

Translation:

I haven’t yet figured out how the Sunni and Shia militias are going to get paid if we were to leave…….
(see above)

McCain: “I know how to win wars”.

Translation:

All we have to do is pay the enemy not to fight……. (see above)

McCain: “We can this war with honor”.

Translation:

Paying the enemy not to fight is “winning with honor”???????????????

McCain: “I will turn around the war in Afganistan”

Translation:

Sure – we can just pay off the Taliban, right??????
Somehow, if they haven’t given Osama bin Laden up in 7 years for a zillion dollar reward, I don’t think that will work…….

Facts have been and remain meaningless to Barack Obama and his devotees.

As for his plan to withdraw the U.S. from Iraq in 16 months? Not even the generals says that's possible.

But, hey, what does that matter to Obama? Mr. Insincerity announced his plan for Iraq before even getting to Iraq to meet with the generals.

Of course, he's relying on his crack military advisers back here--and his extensive knowledge of strategy, tactics, logistics and international relations. Wrong.

And, yes, this is a pro forma photo op. Nothing more. Thing is, he actually thinks no one can see that.

This is crazy!!!

John McCain is now taking after Obama on the fight in Afghan. Obama has been saying that Afghan is our real fight! McCain has been stuck on Iraq. (100 years) Now today, McCain flips on haveing more troops in Afghan. And Obama is inexperienced?

AP just reported the US will meet with Iran on the their nuclear weapons!!! Obama has been saying that WE USA need to talk to our enemies. Republicans talked about him for this and NOW BUSH is doing it!!!

Obama is SMART!! Bush/McCain know that! If they didn't they wouldn't be trying to follow him!!

The Iraq war is winding down and the next president can assist Iraq into the Japan of the middle east or abandon it into the Vietnam of the middle east. Sadly, McCain does not clearly aim for the first and Obama obviously aims for the later! Perhaps the media has bashed Iraq as Bush's mistake for so long that America has lost her optimism to succeed. Iraq is at a cross-road and will be the ally or stranger the US wills it to be.

The perpetual optimism from the political class in US is pretty amazing. How can anybody make a statement that the surge is working when nobody knows what tomorrow will bring? Today 40 people died in Bagdad in a terrorist attack. Is that a benchmark to define success? If the benchmark is how many US soldiers die per month, we can consider that there has been an improvement. But is it a realistic benchmark that define the stability of the country?

After looking at 2,000 something years of history, success, or peace and prosperity, in the Middle East is unlikely to happen soon.

McCain should stop misleading people and be realistic. Violence is down but political effort has been extremely slow due in large part by the incompetence of the US government. I wonder what would be the reaction of McCain be if after a democratic election in Iraq, the islam hard-liners come into power. Would it be still consider as a success in US's opinion?

I see John McCain as serving one term and he is just the person for this time in America. This is not the time for learning on the job. As a conservative, black independent, it is strikingly obvious that Barack Obama is very uncertain about his true beliefs and core values. His campaign appears to be in indecision mode for the past 6 weeks. I do believe the democrats have been led to believe Obama is the stronger candidate because a large number of non democrats voted for him.

Is it possible that much of his funding came from Republicans who hated the Clintons and whon woudl never vote for Obama? And is it possible, the stratgey was to build up Obama so he could be the nominee because indeed he is the weaker candidate? Is this nation really ready to give the code for the nukes to an inexperience, tempermental unkown as Barackn Obama? John MCcain patriotism was never questionable. Until Barack Obama admits it was a mistake to seek the counsel of an unrepentant terrorist, Bill Ayers, I think he will very likely not be the next President.

"Like the GAO says,the surge is not successful."

some things are outside an accountants domain...

from 12/07 to 6/08 we averaged 103 soldiers killed per month.

In the last six months we have averaged 36 killed per month.

If the surge has 'temporarily' reduced violence, it also would appear than it has saved the lives of 402 soldiers(on average)

I wonder if the us soldiers whose lives have been saved by the surge figured into their accounting.

Let's review some history. The 'surge' started in March and was fully in place in June. It was not until September that violence started to decrease. The reason? Al Sadr declared a cease-fire on Aug 29 after Shia v Shia violence in Kerbala killed 50. By this time, most of the ethnic cleansing in Baghdad was complete. So to claim that the surge reduced violence in misleading and historically inaccurate.