Obama Ends The Civil War In Iraq, And More

As explained in the preceding post Team Obama has revised the view of Iraq espoused on their website - the "civil war" which raged as of June 22, is now over.  I credit Glenn Reynolds' link to my earlier snark, although I grudgingly acknowledge the possibility of other explanations.  I also note that the Daily News found news in other Obama revisions about the surge but skipped by the end of the civil war.

Good "the surge can't succeed" clips from Obama via PowerLine.  More here.

Here is the text of Obama's latest speech on Iraq and Afghanistan, with CNN and NY Times coverage.

AllahPundit on the latest NY Times poll - Obama is telling us what we want to hear, not what we need to know.  Surprise!  The Times coverage headlined race.

Comments

[JM Hanes]

Good Morning, Jane!

[Jane]

Good Morning JMH - you beat me to it! It's gonna be a great day!

[clarice]

Goor morning to both of you early risers.

[Jane]

You are doing pretty well on that front yourself Clarice!

[thelonereader]

Re:This is a testament to our military’s hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics, and enormous sacrifice by our troops and military families. It is also a consequence of the decision of many Sunnis to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq, and a lull in Shia militia activity. But the absence of genuine political

Anyone else note that BHO is admitting here that there was/is al Qaeda in Iraq? So if we are fighting al Qaeda there what's the beef?

This is a repost from the previous thread--Oh and good morning all-beautiful day.

[fdcol]

" ... It is also a consequence of the decision of many Sunnis to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq ... "

This would not have happened without the insurgency. Had these Sunnis not lived under the brutal authority of AQI and experienced first-hand the horrors wrought by al-Zaqarwi and his successors, they would still believe in the myth of the superiority of Sharia and AQI's brand of government. As would the rest of the Islamic world.

As horrible as the period between 2004-2007 was in Iraq, history will show that it was a necessary phase in changing Muslim perceptions in our larger conflict against militant and radical Islam.

Not the "strategic blunder" that Obama and the rest of his ilk believe it was.

[GMax]

Karl Rove is just amazing. Only about a week ago he was asked about Obama's surge to the center, and Karl said that while it is important for him to be seen by the overall electorate as being more moderate he said the risk with such a dramatic change is that you risk your credibility with the electorate. He also said its impossible to be a transformational candidate if you are seen as just another politician.

Heck with the sample bias that that CBS/NYT poll has and still over 50% say he will say anything, the true number in a well taken sample is quite a bit higher.

Could not happen to nicer guy in my own opinion. Thanks Karl, you da man.

[Cecil Turner]

As horrible as the period between 2004-2007 was in Iraq, history will show that it was a necessary phase in changing Muslim perceptions in our larger conflict against militant and radical Islam.

Yeah, and it ain't just Iraq, nor is it over yet. In the latest incident, I'm not sure what possessed the Israelis to trade live terrorists for dead hostage remains, but the result is certainly predictable:

In the Gaza Strip, controlled by the violently anti-Israel Hamas group, people celebrated in the streets and handed out sweets in support of Hezbollah.

The celebration of atrocities amongst the Islamist supporters--as long as it can be perceived as a tactical victory, however small--is nothing short of nauseating.

Reviewing the oft-cited Geneva Convention on grave breaches, I'd note that in this particular incident the Islamists managed to violate pretty much all of 'em:

Art. 147. Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. [emphasis added]

If this doesn't highlight the moral dimension of the problem (and the vapid stupidity of the argument that preferential treatment of war criminal detainees leads to reciprocal humane treatment of our own prisoners), then I don't know what could.

[jimmyk]

So if we are fighting al Qaeda there what's the beef?

But, but, um, AQ is only there because we are there! Yeah, that's it!

As if that's a bad thing. Where would they be otherwise? Either attacking the U.S., or concentrated in Afghanistan. We drew them into Iraq and have severely weakened them. But to Obama that's a bad thing, because we should have focused our entire military effort on trudging around the Pakistan/Afghan border looking for OBM.

[fdcol]

It's impossible to make peace and co-exist with neighbors who, like the Palestinians, use cartoon characters to inculcate into their children a culture of death and who glorify your own murder as an heroic act of "martyrdom".

[clarice]

Actually,the Israelis should have not specified if the prisoners they were returning were alive or dead and decided when they got their teo guys back which it would be. Olmert is an idiot.

He has just upped the ante on the thugs kidnapping and murdering Israelis.

And Karl Rove is amazing..Everytime I see him offering up an analysis I am thunderstruck .

[rhodeymark]

I'm not sure what possessed the Israelis to trade live terrorists for dead hostage remains

Would that be because of their own religious traditions?

[clarice]

Not that I know of. Suicide doesn't seem to me a talmudic proscription.

[clarice]

The Israeli armed forces have had a rule that they leave none of their people behind on the field--alive or dead. I don't think, however, that mandates trading losts of thugs for corpses. Why should the thugs follow the Geneva conventions on prisoners now? It's a lot cheaper to just kill the prisoners and it doesn't effect the barter price in the least.

[clarice]

**trading LOTS of thugs***

[Cecil Turner]

Would that be because of their own religious traditions?

I suspect that's so (at least in part). But that just makes it a good illustration of the downside of mixing religion and politics . . . because Clarice is spot-on as to the likely result.

[cathyf]

Am I a really bad person for thinking that Samir Kuntar would have cut a more dashing figure had he arrived at the exchange dressed in a remote-controlled explosive vest?

[clarice]

Not in my eyes, cathyf.

[BobS]

CT: Thats fascinating, CT. Why hasn't anyone attempted to publically advance terrorist's violation of Art. 147

[fdcol]

Israel should treat each Hamas and Hezbollah prisoner to a bris before release.

[clarice]

A fine note showing that Obama's indictment of the war in Iraq really is applicable instead to Afghanistan, suggesting he'd abandon that war just after he abandones the war in Afghanistan.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/greenwald/16211

I wonder, if growing up essentially fatherless explains the wussiness and narcissism of people like Clinton and Obama.(And Kerry, too--who was shipped off early to a far away boarding school where his father didn't visit him even when he was seriously ill.)

[Jane]

You know what I find amazing for its consistency.

Obama gives a speech, on any subject, replete with veiled soaring rhetoric. Immediately he is lauded by his supporters, while his detractors are silent because it takes a bunch of time to plow thru the rhetoric and get to what he actually said.

And as plowing continues, the anger starts to percolate - always about what an unmitigated fraud this guy is. About how he stands for nothing and says even less.

It's fascinating.

[clarice]

Actually, Islamic men are already circumcised.

[Jane]

Clarice,

I grew up fatherless and I am anything but a wus. Of course that might be because I'm a girl.

[cathyf]

I wonder, if growing up essentially fatherless explains the wussiness and narcissism of people like Clinton and Obama.

That's an idea that's been brought up before. Newt Gingrinch is another one with the same sort of biography.

[clarice]

Yes,Jane--I am talking about the effect on boys of not having a father..I find fgirls whose father left, wasn't present for whatever reason tend to be either very resilient and self-sufficient or always hungering for a male's presence and approval.

As to your point about plowing thru the high flown rhetoric only to find doo doo--YUP! It'll take practice to catch up quickly in the heat of a debate,

[fdcol]

Actually, Islamic men are already circumcised.

Yep. And a 2nd one would leave less. LOL

[Rick Ballard]

"Why hasn't anyone attempted to publically advance terrorist's violation of Art. 147"

What? We can't have any detraction from the nobility of the Pali savages or the Zimbabwean savages or the Nork savages or the Venezuelan/Colombian savages or the Iranian savages. You start doing that and The Narrative® is revealed as pure idiocy. Can't have that - it would destroy the Democrat party.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that midlevel officers in the Venezuelan Army are considering applying a variation of the Shraron (and now Uribe) tactic of 'This Hellfire's for you' domestically. If they do, perhaps the Iranian dissidents will give it a whirl.

The Pali leadership's habit of traveling only when surrounded by an entire preschool has slowed town Israel's application of the tactic for the moment but Olmert may have to overcome his reluctance to use it in order to save his own sorry butt politically - which is all this swap was about in the first place.

[Porchlight]

And as plowing continues, the anger starts to percolate

Definitely my experience. The amount of required parsing, examining of past positions, etc. is infuriating. I can't even begin to imagine the frustration if (heaven forbid) he becomes President.

[clarice]

I've always told my family that if I am ever held hostage and I find out they begged my govt to make significant concessions for my return, I'll never speak to them again out of shame.
Shame on these families for whining and moaning for the return of the bodies at the sure cost of pain for many more of the families of their countrymen.

[Jane]

WEll that presents another problem. Most people aren't paying close attention - they hear the rhetoric and assume he is saying what they want to hear. They don't bother with the analysis part.

You really couldn't have dreamed up a better way to fool some the the people all of the time.

[Danube of Thought]

I loved that note applying Obama's words on Iraq to the situation in Afghanistan. Why is Afghanistan not a distraction? And the war in Afghanistan has not only gone on longer than World War II and the US Civil War, it has gone on longer than the war in Iraq.

Will someone ask him why he doesn't feel that it is time to withdraw from Afghanistan? Answer: no one will, because it's been a long time since he allowed anyone to ask questions.

[clarice]

Isn't that commentary piece a beauty--short, crisp, surgical gelding of the Obamessiah.

[Rick Ballard]

Jane,

Could you put a post up at your site outlining the info you would like to have concerning energy and perqs? "Energy" is a rather broad topic...

[Jane]

Rick,

Yeah, I'm compiling some stuff in a notebook (and actually doing some work), so give me some time. I'll let you know when I'm at that point.

The best thing I found on perqs so far is LUN, altho I just started going thru it.

[MikeS]

I'm trying to follow Obama's logic.

Obama says the Surge hasn't worked in Iraq so, we should surge in Afghanistan.

Obama says remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda are flaring up and threatening to retake Afghanistan because we haven't had enough troops there to finish the job. Countervailing that idea, Obama doesn't think al Qaeda, Sunni or Shia militias, or Iranian forces will threaten to retake Iraq if we remove all forces immediately.

Whoa. Nuance. Cognitive dissonance.

[Pofarmer]

I think Obama is about to have his Thunder stolen on Afghanistan, too.

http://rednecktexan.blogspot.com/2008/07/nato-massing-troops-on-pakistan-border.html

[Cecil Turner]

Why hasn't anyone attempted to publically advance terrorist's violation of Art. 147

One could argue that they're not signatories, and since the hostages were soldiers they're not protected, it doesn't apply (and, to the very gullible, that the bodies' disfigurations were caused by the raid, not in subsequent torture). But the bottom line is that the terrorist playbook is based on flouting the laws of war, and that their very existence represents a conscious rejection of the civilized standards of irregular warfare:

• (a) that of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
• (b)that of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;
• (c) that of carrying arms openly;
• (d)that of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

The Islamist approach of developing catspaw organizations (and non-state actors such as the Palis), hiding amongst civilians, booby-trapping and smuggling explosives, and targeting noncombatants is the very antithesis of civilized warfare, and calculatedly so. The legalistic hair-splitting defense has to ignore the very substance of their existence in order to be plausible . . . and only the most devoted fellow traveler could actually buy into it.

As to why it's not debated in public? Well, it's not news. And that's partly because the nature of terrorism hasn't changed much . . . and partly because, like Rick says, it doesn't fit the narrative. It's pretty hard to make the moral equivalence case if one allows the enemy is intentionally being as evil as possible, just for the shock value. And the moral equivalence brigade is a staple of the American left (and their supporters in the MSM).

[BobS]

I understand, CT. My point lies in "public advancement" Like the presence of yellowcake in Saddam's possession, public understanding of issues is harmful to our own security. While I advocate the existance of Guantanimo and the special tribunals, I never knew that these terrorists were already in violation of Geneva. Perhaps public knowledge of this would have given the administration more political capital in advancing their policy. Maybe we might not have even had that tragic recent USSC ruling on granting detainees access to our courts.

[Jane]

Pofarmer, I'm sure Obama will say NATO stole the idea from him. They are already saying that about the talks with Iran that were announced last night.

[BobS]

OBAMA: Me, too. Me, too

[Danube of Thought]

Note well that the "talks with Iran that were announced last night" bear no resemblance at all to Obama's proclamation that he, personally, would meet with Ahmajinedad without preconditions.

This crew plays awfully fast and loose with facts. Obama is not just another pol, he's an unusually dishonest one.

[narciso]

Anybody figure the Al Marri case, which was remanded to the 4th Circuit enbanc; because it was apparently too clear the first time around. This is the Casey of military
detainee law;and I don't mean it as a complement:href I guess it means whatever you want it to mean, they'll probably appeal to the Supremes but I have no confidence in what they would come up with.

On another note, one of these days I'll come up with my long post on the British experience in the NorthWestern Frontier; which was derived from an account of the British hunt for a would be Mahdi; the Fakir of Waziristan. Which would suggest
what a Pakistan first policy would entail;
Future Marshal Robert Roberts, Winston
Churchill, to use two examples, 40 years apart; figure in this scenario.

[GMax]

I just saw a comment on a website but have not been able to confirm it. Anyone have any information on this?

The contention is that the Congressional ban on offshore drilling is set to expire on 9/30/08? They thought they were safe due to the Executive ban as well and have not acted to extend it and probably can not muster the votes to extend.

First I heard this, dont know if its true or not. But if someone can confirm or deny with info I would be appreciative.

[Jane]

I've heard that from a number of sources GMax - not the date, just that it was about to expire.

Good news - eh?

[Ranger]

GMax,

I have read the same thing. If it is true then the Dems are in for a rough Sept/Oct. The Eco-warriors will demand that the ban be extended just at the time the public will be paying attention to politics. If the Dems fail to extend the ban, they will lose a huge part of their money and a chunk of their foot soldiers for the final streach of the campaign season. They only way they will be able to extend it is to get Blue Dog freshmen Dems to vote for it, thus putting those seats at risk, as refusing to allow drilling would kill the Dems with the general public.

[Rick Ballard]

GMax,

Perino outlined the lift of the ban in this press briefing. Here's the pertinent Q & A:

Q It's my understanding the congressional ban expires at the end of September without -- unless it's reauthorized.

MS. PERINO: Every year. It's a yearly ban that they do in the appropriations process.

Q So would what the President wants be accomplished by allowing the congressional ban to expire, or do you need new legislation?

MS. PERINO: You need new legislation. And in addition to that, one thing that's just a detail point, the President's ban or executive branch ban goes through 2012. And as Wendell said, the legislative ban is something that they repeat on a yearly basis.

[Jane]

. They only way they will be able to extend it is to get Blue Dog freshmen Dems to vote for it, thus putting those seats at risk, as refusing to allow drilling would kill the Dems with the general public.

That Rove is really a magnificent bastard, isn't he?

[Barney Frank]

(And Kerry, too--who was shipped off early to a far away boarding school where his father didn't visit him even when he was seriously ill.)

Can't say I blame pop Kerry. I probably would have surreptitiously switched his wrist band with any other infant at the hospital when I first got a look at baby Herman Munster in the nursery.

[glenda waggoner]

I may be old-fashioned. I don't suffer fools much. I think Hezbollah and Hamas need a little lesson, like, say--Gomorah!
How hard would it be to evacuate the women and kids, warn the Israeli's away- and ##//!
the evil ones? No amount of co-operation, diplomacy, payoffs will do now or ever. These dealers of death just have to go.We evacuate Houston to Corpus Christi very efficiently when a storm comes in the Gulf, I Know it's not the same, but that is my idea of dealing with H&H in the Gaza. I think maybe, after that, their financiers and planners in Iran might want to negotiate.