The AP Declares Victory In Iraq (Sans "Surge" And Bush)

Obama travels to Iraq and wins the war.  Well, that is not fair to the AP coverage, but Obama's commitment to withdrawal regardless of circumstances has forced folks (e.g., Joe Klein) to rationalize it (of course, Michael Yon declared victory before anyone cared).  And I'll save you the trouble - although the AP credits a change in US tactics in late 2006, the word "surge" does not appear in this analysis, nor does Bush receive any credit for putting in more troops when all seemed lost.  Victory has 999 fathers.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost.

Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.

That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had. The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy.

...

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the AP on Thursday that the insurgency as a whole has withered to the point where it is no longer a threat to Iraq's future.

"Very clearly, the insurgency is in no position to overthrow the government or, really, even to challenge it," Crocker said. "It's actually almost in no position to try to confront it. By and large, what's left of the insurgency is just trying to hang on."

...

Iraq still faces a mountain of problems: sectarian rivalries, power struggles within the Sunni and Shiite communities, Kurdish-Arab tensions, corruption. Anyone could rekindle widespread fighting.

But the underlying dynamics in Iraqi society that blew up the U.S. military's hopes for an early exit, shortly after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, have changed in important ways in recent months.

Systematic sectarian killings have all but ended in the capital, in large part because of tight security and a strategy of walling off neighborhoods purged of minorities in 2006.

That has helped establish a sense of normalcy in the streets of the capital. People are expressing a new confidence in their own security forces, which in turn are exhibiting a newfound assertiveness with the insurgency largely in retreat.

Statistics show violence at a four-year low. The monthly American death toll appears to be at its lowest of the war — four killed in action so far this month as of Friday, compared with 66 in July a year ago. From a daily average of 160 insurgent attacks in July 2007, the average has plummeted to about two dozen a day this month. On Wednesday the nationwide total was 13.

...

The questions facing both Americans and Iraqis are: What kinds of help will the country need from the U.S. military, and for how long? The questions will take on greater importance as the U.S. presidential election nears, with one candidate pledging a troop withdrawal and the other insisting on staying.

Iraqi authorities have grown dependent on the U.S. military after more than five years of war. While they are aiming for full sovereignty with no foreign troops on their soil, they do not want to rush. In a similar sense, the Americans fear that after losing more than 4,100 troops, the sacrifice could be squandered.

U.S. commanders say a substantial American military presence will be needed beyond 2009. But judging from the security gains that have been sustained over the first half of this year — as the Pentagon withdrew five Army brigades sent as reinforcements in 2007 — the remaining troops could be used as peacekeepers more than combatants.

...

Although Sunni and Shiite extremists are still around, they have surrendered the initiative and have lost the support of many ordinary Iraqis. That can be traced to an altered U.S. approach to countering the insurgency — a Petraeus-driven move to take more U.S. troops off their big bases and put them in Baghdad neighborhoods where they mixed with ordinary Iraqis and built a new level of trust.

Army Col. Tom James, a brigade commander who is on his third combat tour in Iraq, explains the new calm this way:

"We've put out the forest fire. Now we're dealing with pop-up fires."

It's not the end of fighting. It looks like the beginning of a perilous peace.

Like Obama, the AP may be hazy as to whether the surge helped.

I SAVE YOU MORE TIME:  President Bush gets mentioned twice in this story - once for "Mission Accomplished" and here:

That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had.

So how did we reach this surprising success?  Well, it didn't take more troops and it didn't involve Bush:

Systematic sectarian killings have all but ended in the capital, in large part because of tight security and a strategy of walling off neighborhoods purged of minorities in 2006.

...Although Sunni and Shiite extremists are still around, they have surrendered the initiative and have lost the support of many ordinary Iraqis. That can be traced to an altered U.S. approach to countering the insurgency — a Petraeus-driven move to take more U.S. troops off their big bases and put them in Baghdad neighborhoods where they mixed with ordinary Iraqis and built a new level of trust.

That was easy!  No mention at all of Bush's widely derided surge, or the President's role in pushing it.

By way of contrast (and with props to James Rainey of the LA Times), consider the thoughts of Assassin Gate author George Packer of The New Yorker from last July 7:, who appraised the new calm in Iraq:

The improved conditions can be attributed, in increasing order of importance, to President Bush’s surge, the change in military strategy under General David Petraeus, the turning of Sunni tribes against Al Qaeda, the Sadr militia’s unilateral ceasefire, and the great historical luck that brought them all together at the same moment.

Well.  The new tactics of Gen. Petraeus were the key part of the surge and needed more troops to be successfully implemented - "clear and hold" without any troops to do the holding was not a promising approach, nor was it what Bush described in his Jan 2007 speech announcing the troop increase and change in tactics (a speech which did not use the word "surge".   Historians can now note that Jimmy Carter did  not say "malaise" in his malaise speech and Bush did not say "surge" in his surge speech.)

This is a strong commitment.  But for it to succeed, our commanders say the Iraqis will need our help.  So America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad.  This will require increasing American force levels.  So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq.  The vast majority of them -- five brigades -- will be deployed to Baghdad.  These troops will work alongside Iraqi units and be embedded in their formations.  Our troops will have a well-defined mission: to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs.

Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not.  Well, here are the differences: In earlier operations, Iraqi and American forces cleared many neighborhoods of terrorists and insurgents, but when our forces moved on to other targets, the killers returned.  This time, we'll have the force levels we need to hold the areas that have been cleared. In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter those neighborhoods -- and Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated.

As to the "great historical luck" that the Anbar Awakening of the Sunni sheiks coincided with the surge - my goodness.  An important inspiration for the surge was the success of Col. MacFarland in working with the Anbar sheiks against Al Qaeda in Ramadi in the fall of 2006.  George Bush also cited that in his Jan 2007 speech:

Our military forces in Anbar are killing and capturing al Qaeda leaders, and they are protecting the local population. Recently, local tribal leaders have begun to show their willingness to take on al Qaeda.  And as a result, our commanders believe we have an opportunity to deal a serious blow to the terrorists.  So I have given orders to increase American forces in Anbar Province by 4,000 troops.  These troops will work with Iraqi and tribal forces to keep up the pressure on the terrorists.  America's men and women in uniform took away al Qaeda's safe haven in Afghanistan -- and we will not allow them to re-establish it in Iraq.

Packer gave Bush more credit than the AP did, but he was not lavish.

Comments

[kevin]

Except for Mission Accomplished didn't call the end of US military involvement, just that MAJOR combat has ended, the transition was still going to be hard work, but having actually listened to the speech was to much for the AP

[PaulL]

President Bush caused Katrina, partisanship, and torture.

He did not defeat al-Qaeda or free Afghanistan from the Taliban or free Iraq from Saddam.

Yep, that's history as the media wants it.

[paladin2]

you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time

[bio mom]

Nor will they be able to fool history. Bush kept us safe, liberated 25 million million people, won the war with his stubborness and change of strategy, and helped put a democratic government in the heart of the Middle East, one with oil no less. He will not, as portrayed by the media and most others, go down as a fool or failure. He will be a very successful, even great president. One who caused monumental changes in the world at the same time he protected his country. His departure, cheered by so many, is a real loss for us.

[bio mom]

Bill Clinton, on the other hand, will be remembered for his sexual escapades and Monica Lewinsky.

[Danube of Thought]

Good God, they really do have no shame whatsoever.

For the record, "Mission Accomplished" were the words on a banner prepared by crewmen of USS Abraham Lincoln on their return to the US from a highly successful deployment in which they participated in the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime. Their mission had, indeed, been accomplished, as they had every right to proclaim. But facts like these can't get in the way of an anti-Bush tailor-made media sound bite.

[MarkJ]

AP does its best Tony Soprano shtick:

"Y'know all that stuff we said in the past about Iraq? Fuhgeddabowdit."

[Jimmy]

Fuckem in the ass

[Barney Frank]

but Obama's commitment to withdrawal regardless of circumstances

Update: Obama now says troop levels 'entirely conditions based'. I'm getting whiplash.

[ben]

Obama cometh, courtesy of Gerald Baker...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThFvlybQYso

[bad]

The Evening Star on Barack's broken promise:

Back then I was looking after 40 orphans at the orphan centre," she recalls. "We faced a desperate shortage of money and Obama told us that he especially liked special, dedicated projects like ours and wanted to help. We thought he would give funds to help our project but we got nothing. A few months later we were forced to shut down the orphan centre because of lack of funds. Just a million Kenyan shillings [£6,000] would have kept us going another year. I feel disappointed that he did not come through."

Being a rock star can really suck, all those greedy hometown people.....

LUN

[bad]

Evening *****Standard******

[PaulL]

To make it even more outrageous:

Not only did President Bush NOT say "mission accomplished," he actually said, in that very speech, "Our mission continues."

[cathyf]

Gee, remember Saddam's army, the 4th largest standing army on earth in 2002? The one that was going to cause massive US casualties? Defeating that army was indeed a "mission" and it was indeed "accomplished". Very quickly, and with very few casualties, American or Iraqi. But, of course, democrats are always denigrating the accomplishments of the American military...

[Rick Ballard]

From Bad's link:

"I know you are working very hard and struggling to bring up this school, but I have said I will assist the school and I will do so."

Those silly Kenyan's took him at his word - hey, they're as smart as 42% of the American public!

[bad]

Obiero was not the only one to think that the US Senator from Illinois, who had recently acquired a $1.65 million house in Chicago, would cough up. Obama's own grandmother Sarah confidently told reporters before his visit: "When he comes down here, he will change the face of the school and, believe me, our poverty in Kogelo will be a thing of the past."

The village seemed to think he would be donating personal funds, bless their hearts. In his defense, I'm sure he meant to donate US taxpayer funds but got distracted by himself.

[Sue]

bad,

That's sad. And a front row seat of an Obama promise. Not worth much.

[Rick Ballard]

He's battinng 1.000 on stuffing grannies isn't he, Bad? Cut out the kids Christmas and birthday presents now that Uncle Tony's off to the slammer - hey, maybe Rezko was supposed to fund the school?

Yeah, that's it - Rezko promised Obama that he'd fund the school and then that awful Fitz man nabbed him and he couldn't do it from jail.

[bad]

Sue

Obiero should tell Cindy McCain of the orphans' plight. She has a demonstrated track record on this issue.

[cathyf]

Well, even without donating personal funds, isn't the guy a community organizer?!? Couldn't he have gone back to Chicago, and talked to all those community organizations, and, ya know, his church about this Kenyan village and how much good they could do there for really small amounts of money?

(We have friends who are from India. 15 years ago they came back home from a trip to visit India with pictures, and their church set up a ministry. They have raised several hundred thousand dollars over the years. They have built and stocked a clinic, and dozens of sturdy houses to replace shanties. All from their church and the local community.)

[bad]

He's battinng 1.000 on stuffing grannies...

LOL but sadly true....

[Danube of Thought]

Jeez--I sure don't want to be seen as endorsing ungenteel, or indeed even vile, commentary in any way, but I do find myself somewhat in sympathy with the sentiments expressed by the estimable Jimmy, above.

[Porchlight]

Ditto that, DoT.

[bad]

The Kenyan family must not have gotten the memo from the campaign about no interviews...

[KSM]

Seriously, someone should set up a charity to help Obama's relatives' village school.

Think of it:

"We don't want them to think that all Americans break their promises - contribute now to get running water and a good education to those who trusted in Obama but were disappointed. Don't leave them with a bad impression of the USA."

Then send the collected funds over to the impoverished school attended by Obama's relatives. Maybe they can finish building their science lab!

[Ann]

LOL, I love that about you Dot, just like Clarice you cut to the quick and don't suffer fools gladly.

I printed that article, bad, for my husband to distribute at work (he won't) because he is just like Dot and will not spend his time on the fraud (understandably). But hopefully, he might pull it out of his briefcase and throw it at some young, dumb, cuss that works for him before the election. :) All of which, think Obama is the father they never had and will save their world.

[BobM]

President Bush's speech is here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030501-15.html

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

That signaled the end of "major combat" and the beginning of occupation -- a significant change in operations, obligations, and rules of engagement.

It was stated by the President at the request of General Franks, since some other countries' leaders had promised to help with the occupation and reconstruction once major combat operations had ended.

As noted in a previous comment, President Bush also said, for example, "We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes."

It's apparently too hard for the AP folks to acknowledge the truth -- that is, assuming they aren't just ignorant of the facts.

[Ann]

Ten questions Barack Obama will never be asked (from Doug Ross)

1. Why does Senator Obama advocate a surge of troops in Afghanistan though he considers a surge of troops in Iraq to have been a mistake?

2. Why is a stable Afghanistan crucial to US interests while a stable Iraq is not?

3. How long does Senator Obama expect to keep troops in Afghanistan?

4. Why is an open-ended commitment in Afghanistan manageable while the same in Iraq is not?

5. How much does Senator Obama expect to spend rebuilding Afghanistan?

6. Why is rebuilding Afghanistan affordable while rebuilding Iraq is not?

7. Why does Senator Obama consider the ethno-sectarian issues in Iraq to be nearly intractable while in Afghanistan they are something we can overcome?

8. If leaving Iraq will make the Iraqi government behave more responsibly, how will an increased presence in Afghanistan affect the Afghan government?

9. Why does Senator Obama advocate a “surge in diplomacy” and multilateralism in Iraq while simultaneously advocating unilateral action in the Pakistani tribal areas?

10. How large of a “residual force” will be left in Iraq and for how long?

[Sara]

The Evening Standard and Free Republic reported:

It is an extraordinary sight to walk into a basic two-room house under a mango tree in rural east Africa and discover what is essentially a shrine to Barack Obama.

The small brick house with no running water, a tin roof and roving chickens, goats and cows is owned by Sarah Obama, Barack’s 86-year-old step-grandmother. Inside, the walls are decorated with a 2008 Obama election sticker, an old “Barack Obama for Senate” poster on which he has written “Mama Sarah Habai [how are you?]”, a 2005 calendar that says “The Kenyan Wonder Boy in the US”, and more than a dozen family photos.

But this bucolic scene in his father’s village of Kogelo near the Equator in western Kenya conceals a troubling reality that, until now, has never been spoken about. Barack Obama, the Evening Standard can reveal, after we went to the village earlier this month, has failed to honour the pledges of assistance that he made to a school named in his honour when he visited here amid great fanfare two years ago.

At that historic homecoming in August 2006 Obama was greeted as a hero with thousands lining the dirt streets of Kogelo. He visited the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School built on land donated by his paternal grandfather. After addressing the pupils, a third of whom are orphans, and dancing with them as they sang songs in his honour, he was shown a school with four dilapidated classrooms that lacked even basic resources such as water, sanitation and electricity.

He told the assembled press, local politicians (who included current Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga), and students: “Hopefully I can provide some assistance in the future to this school and all that it can be.” He then turned to the school’s principal, Yuanita Obiero, and assured her and her teachers: “I know you are working very hard and struggling to bring up this school, but I have said I will assist the school and I will do so.”

Obiero says that although Obama did not explicitly use the word “financial” to qualify the nature of the assistance he was offering, “there was no doubt among us [teachers] that is what he meant. We interpreted his words as meaning he would help fund the school, either personally or by raising sponsors or both, in order to give our school desperately-needed modern facilities and a facelift”. She added that 10 of the school’s 144 pupils are Obama’s relatives.

(H/T: Gateway Pundit)

[nick]

winning? 200,000 troops supporing war against 10000 insurgents

wait till the troops leave!

[ROA]

And here is what Bob Geldof had to say about President Bush and Africa in February:

I gave the President my book. He raised an eyebrow. "Who wrote this for ya, Geldof?" he said without looking up from the cover. Very dry. "Who will you get to read it for you, Mr. President?" I replied. No response.

The Most Powerful Man in the World studied the front cover. Geldof in Africa — " 'The international best seller.' You write that bit yourself?"

"That's right. It's called marketing. Something you obviously have no clue about or else I wouldn't have to be here telling people your Africa story."

It is some story. And I have always wondered why it was never told properly to the American people, who were paying for it. It was, for example, Bush who initiated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with cross-party support led by Senators John Kerry and Bill Frist. In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs — and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free of charge. The U.S. also contributes one-third of the money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — which treats another 1.5 million. It contributes 50% of all food aid (though some critics find the mechanism of contribution controversial). On a seven-day trip through Africa, Bush announced a fantastic new $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated; a program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanian kids; and contracts worth around $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account, another initiative of the Bush Administration.

So why doesn't America know about this? "I tried to tell them. But the press weren't much interested," says Bush. It's half true. There are always a couple of lines in the State of the Union, but not enough so that anyone noticed, and the press really isn't interested. For them, like America itself, Africa is a continent of which little is known save the odd horror.

We sat in the large, wood-paneled conference room of Air Force One as she cruised the skies of the immense African continent below us. Gathered around the great oval table, I wondered how changed was the man who said in 2000 that Africa "doesn't fit into the national strategic interests, as far as I can see them."

"Hold on a minute. I said that in response to a military question. Condi! Canya get in here," the President shouts out the open door, leaning back in his chair. The Secretary of State, looking glamorous and fresh despite having been diverted to Kenya to articulate the U.S.'s concern over matters there before jetting back to Rwanda to join her boss, sits down. "Hi, Bob." "Hi, Condi." It's like being inside a living TV screen.

Bush asks whether she remembers the context of the 2000 question. She confirms it was regarding the U.S.'s military strategies inside Africa, but then 2000 was so long ago. Another universe. I ask him if it is the same today. "Yes, sir," he says. "Well, if America has no military interest in Africa, then what is Africom for?" I ask.

People in Africa are worried about this new, seemingly military command. I thought it was an inappropriate and knee-jerk U.S. militaristic response to clumsy Chinese mercantilism that could only end in tears for everyone concerned. (And so did many Africans, if the local press was anything to go by.)

"That's ridiculous," says Bush. "We're still working on it. We're trying to build a humanitarian mission that would train up soldiers for peace and security so that African nations are more capable of dealing with Africa's conflicts. You agree with that dontcha?" Indeed I do. The British intervention in Sierra Leone stopped and prevented a catastrophe, as did U.S. action in Liberia. Later, in public, Bush says, "I want to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America is bringing all kinds of military to Africa. It's simply not true ... That's baloney, or as we say in Texas — that's bull!" Trouble is, it sounds to me a lot like what the U.S. did in the early Vietnam years with the advisers who became something else. Mission creep, I think it's called.

"No, that won't happen," Bush insists. "We're still working on what exactly it'll be, but it will be a humanitarian mission, training in peace and security, conflict resolution ... It's a new concept and we want to get it right." He muses for a while on the U.S. and China, and their policies on Africa — Africans are increasingly resentful that the Chinese bring their own labor force and supplies with them. Then, in what I took to be a reference to the supposed Chinese influence over the cynical Khartoum regime, Bush adds, "One thing I will say: Human suffering should preempt commercial interest."

It's a wonderful sentence, and it comes in the wake of a visit to Rwanda's Genocide Memorial Center. The museum is built on the site of a still-being-filled open grave. There are 250,000 individuals in that hole, tumbled together in an undifferentiated tangle of humanity. The President and First Lady were visibly shocked by the museum. "Evil does exist," Bush says in reaction to the 1994 massacres. "And in such a brutal form." He is not speechifying; he is horror-struck by the reality of ethnic madness. "Babies had their skulls smashed," he says, his mind violently regurgitating an image he has just witnessed. The sentence peters out, emptied of words to describe the ultimately incomprehensible.

Rwanda brings him back again to Darfur. In an interview with African journalists, Bush explained the difficulties there now that the "rebels" had broken up into ever-smaller factions, no longer representing their own clans but their own warlord interests. What should we do in this very 21st century asymmetric situation? Impose a wall of peacekeepers first, stop the massacre and rape, and begin negotiating? "The U.N. is so slow, but we must act," Bush says.

Action may very well be his wish, but because of the U.S.'s intervention elsewhere and his own preemptive philosophy, it is now unacceptable for the U.S. to engage unilaterally. By his own deeds, he has rendered U.S. action in Darfur impossible. As for the rest of the world, for all their oft-spoken pieties, they seem to be able to agree on precisely nothing. Meanwhile, the rape and killing continue, Khartoum plays its game of murder and we won't even pay for the helicopters that the U.N. forces need to protect themselves. Pathetic.

[Ann]

ROA,

Boo! Take special care. Get some help. Fly! Fly! Fly! You landed in the wrong place, Go to Dailykos.com immediately.

[JM Hanes]

Question #11: What is your exit plan for Afghanistan, Senator?

[Sara]

Ann: I think you are misinterpreting. It is a positive article about GWB. A story that doesn't get told and should be.

[sylvia]

" Bush kept us safe, liberated 25 million million people, won the war with his stubborness and change of strategy"

I agree with that. Funny that Bush was derided for not admitting his "mistake" and not being able to "change". But he showed great ability to change by changing his strategy to the surge. Against all the recommendations from his father and his father's friends like Baker. (Remember George Bush senior crying?) I'm still amazed at the success of that idea and how little people are giving him credit for that, although not completely surprised. Maybe the left should admit their "mistake" now, and maybe they are the ones who should change their minds and accept the growing success in Iraq.

[hrtshpdbox]

"It is a positive article about GWB. A story that doesn't get told and should be."

It is a very positive article, on the whole, and I was a bit surprised when I first read it - not surprised to see how GWB is so personally involved with massive humanitarian efforts, but rather taken aback that a liberal like Geldof freely acknowledges GWB's decency and accomplishments. Geldof felt it was a story that needed to be told, and it's unfortunate that there's so few Americans who feel similarly compelled to get the word out.

[davod]

They can declare victory because Obama has been there.

[kim]

The sad thing is that Geldof's article would not have attracted any attention at all if he hadn't made its centerpiece his own unwieldy application of the canard about Bush not reading. Without it, the article would have sunk like a stone, because it doesn't fit the narrative. Well, historians love to upset contemporary narratives.
======================================

[kim]

ROA, no, Bush has not prevented the use of unilateral action. The Democrats are in charge of Congress. Congress declares war. Get them busy on Darfur.

The founders laid the honor of declaring war on the legislature and the onus of waging it on the executive for one simple reason; it is a Hell of a lot easier to get into war than to get out of it. Congress wanted to go to war in Iraq; it doesn't in Darfur. So get with your representatives, and stop blaming Bush because the world isn't the way you wish it were.
==============================

[PeterUK]

Ann,
You missed a question,
11,Does Obama know where Afghanistan is? Landlocked ,no port,long supply lines.Every bit of kit trucked through Pakistan or flown in.

[Cecil Turner]

Action may very well be his wish, but because of the U.S.'s intervention elsewhere and his own preemptive philosophy, it is now unacceptable for the U.S. to engage unilaterally.

Piffle. The US doesn't need the good opinion of the "world community" to intervene in Darfur. It needs the concurrence (or at least acquiescence) of the American electorate. And after the last ill-fated attempt to bring humanitarian aid to Africa, there's no inclination whatsoever to support this one. Absent any significant strategic concern, it ain't gonna happen . . . unless the UN types get off the dime. Which means after peace breaks out everywhere else, or hell freezes over, whichever comes last.

[pagar]

Good Morning to all.
PUK, I don't think Obama spends much time thinking about long supply lines.

[Jane]

"My policy is that we were wrong to go into Iraq".

Can someone tell the great Messiah that an opinion is not a policy.

Good Morning peeps - it's good to be back in the USA!

[clarice]

Good Morning..We are spending too much time talking to eachother and not enough trying to get others whose only news about the candidates is from the msm informed. Jane, get on the air faster! Everyone else start writing and talking to your family, friends and neighbors.
I am astonished after a brief conversation with the wife of an old friend who visited yesterday to realize how little of what we know about O is getting thru the white noise.

[kim]

Through RCP, Rex Murphy has a nice article in the Globe and Mail about Obama, 'The Audacity of Hubris', but Frank Rich is already calling him the putative President. Maybe Jeff is just bummed about all this hosannah hoohaw, and will be restored as Obama fades. The press is starting to sweat that Obama is a hazard.
=====================

[kim]

Remember, destroy him now and the PUMA will strike and we'll have Hillary for sure after November. Plenty of time to deconstruct Obama, says the fly to the spider.
================================

[kim]

It feels like Hallow's Eve.
It's the whoosh of the broom, I believe.
========================

[hit and run]

Clarice will require you to work. She is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your keyboards. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Clarice will never allow you to have family and friends with lives that are usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

;-)

[kim]

You know for all this talk of 'hope and change' he's really just selling a used car, and a lemon at that.
=============================

[centralcal]

Good morning, Clarice: "Everyone else start writing and talking to your family, friends and neighbors."

It has been a busy month and I have talked to family and friends, some of whom I hadn't talked to in depth for years, and I can tell you they were all aware of the most important stuff -- Obama is a fraud. They are gonna vote for McCain with a pinched nose.

[hit and run]

Oh, and Good Morning!

[kim]

cc, that may explain why the polls are so close despite the love affair of the press. Well, the bloom is off the rose. The journalists have found him even more self-centered than themselves, and they won't stand for it. Better a mirror for their sensibilities, like McCain.

Why be a gladiator when you can be a narcissus?
========================

[clarice]

Exactly, Hit, you scamp.

Glad to hear that cc--we've another 61/2 % to persuade.

The only spark of hope I saw this week was Dick Morris (I know, I know) saying at this point he considers anyone saying undecide (20% of those polled) as actually leaning McCain.

[clarice]

**undecideD***

[centralcal]

I think one of the biggest problems "O" supporters have right now is that Barack's policies are shifting all over the map.

The left has been nothing, if not insanely ENTRENCHED, in their anti-war, Iraq, surge, terrorism, patriotism (insert almost anything). They are not a FLEXIBLE group and I think the confusion is gonna slowly undermine them.

[Sue]

C-Cal,

It won't matter. Obama supporters will vote for Obama no matter what he says now, recognizing he is pandering. It is those undecideds that will matter. And, like Dick Morris, I think they will fall towards McCain, if they haven't already drunk from the Obama kool-aid cup.

[Sue]

I just took a quick trip to Scary's place, and I'm astounded. They are linking to Blackfive. The world is indeed a Scary place.

[halfacarafe]

How many more deaths did the US experience because of the MSM only portraying the war as a (US) losing endeavor. If the MSM would have been honest with the American people (and no, they did not have to be cheerleaders) and just give honest accounts of the war, wins and setbacks, I suspect the insurgency would have stood down about a year and a half ago. Shame on the media, because of its hatred of this president, many more deaths have occured than needed. Because of the Obama's excellent adventure and all the clingers on in the media having to follow him to the ends of the earth, not all of the reporters could have face time with the Messiah and were forced to do side stories on good thing done and being done in Irag, this beamed into our homes last week and only now the American people have a totally different view of our military and the success on the war on terror. History will be kind to GW Bush. By the time that history is printed, my guess is the MSM will also be a text case in propaganda, and a dead industy.

[centralcal]

The left cowers in the storm cellar . . . the "calm" before the John Edwards "storm."

LUN

[Rick Ballard]

Perhaps Edwards could go build a school in Kenya until this blows over?

You know, to let the Kenyans know that not every single Dem pol is a lying slimeball. He could take the wife and almost all of the kids and they could pretend to be a missionary family.

[ROA]

I thought the article about President Bush by Bob Geldorf presented the president in a very favorable light. Especially when you consider that Senator Obama was able to get a $1 million grant for his wife’s employer around the time she was getting a $200,000 raise, but couldn’t get any money for the village in Africa.

[halfacarafe]

If we had a real 5th estate, and not just adoring fans, we might have seen follow up questions like this:

1) Sen. Obama, if the surge did not work in Iraq, why do you want to remove the troops and send them to Afganistan to do another "surge" there?
2) If Bin Laden is in Pakistan, why are you suggesting to increase the troops in Afganistan? Shouldn't you be focusing on invading Pakistan? Will you take John Kerry with you? He has stated he would kill Bin Laden with his own hands.

Instead we get such follow statements as
a) ...tingles go up my thigh
b) ...his workout routine is awesome

[clarice]

Rick, You are always so full of constructive ideas, I can't imagine why Dean hasn't hired you.

[kim]

Right, halfabot, and I blame that bastard Powell for some of it for going along with Plame and Wilson.

cc, there has to be a reason the National Enquirer is witholding those photos. I wonder what it is.
==========================

[Danube of Thought]

Mornin', Jane et al.

Love those ten questions. And I'd love to see them reflected is some McCain ads and posed in the debates. We all know that if and when Obama is asked them, when he gets done responding we won't know anything more than we know right now.

[kim]

Good God, who'd want a man running America who doesn't have the sense to put on a false beard and moustache when the situation requires it? He certainly was smart enough to put on a fake persona in the courtroom. Why not when something more important than money is at stake?
==============================

[centralcal]

Kim: about NE withholding the photos . . .

Silky KNOWS if he was photographed or not. I think the NE is kind of showing merciful extortion here. If John and Elizabeth and children hold a teary, confessinal, apologetic press conference BEFORE the photos are released, the media will have its marching orders to FORGIVE and FORGET.

If he does nothing, and the tsunami tide of media crashes onto the Edwards shore it could go on for days and be much more damaging.

I honestly think, NE is pushing for poor pathetic family press conference.

[halfacarafe]

...and the most important question to ask the president by the media....

Will you be willing to send your daughters to Afganistan and Darfur and Pakistan Senator Chickenhawk?

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

Better yet - RW could launch the Kenyannenburg Challenge. All she would have to do is provide one free lunch to half the students at Obama NonHigh School and she'd be able to show more concrete results than were achieved in the entire Chicago domestic terrorist relief fund exercise.

[Ann]

ROA,

It appears that I confused you with Bob Geldof, Sorry!

[kim]

Yes, cc, I'll bet it's a tough Sunday in Caroline. Really, I'm sorry for all concerned. Hasn't Edwards already been buried politically? This is not as immediately fatal as 'Monkey Business' but the morbidity is going to splatter up all around and persist. I sure hope Elizabeth has been getting good news about her cancer lately, and has a personal doctor privy to her psyche.
=========================

[Frank Warner]

The AP mentions "the Sadr militia's unilateral ceasefire" as a key to victory. What unilateral ceasefire?

Who were the United States and Iraqi forces recently fighting in Baghad and Basrah? The Sadrists.

Sadr announced his "ceasefires" only to appear as if he had a choice to continue fighting. But every time he made such an announcement, his Mahdi Army had just been defeated and felt the Coalition coming in for the kill.

Petraeus repeated Sadr's "ceasefire" announcements to let some Sadrists save pride as they quit fighting, but in fact, it was Petraeus' own forces that had forced those "ceasefires" while Sadr was in hiding in Iran.

[Frank Warner]

Correction: That was George Packer, not AP, who this time gave credit to Sadr for his "unilateral ceasefire."

[Frank Warner]

Correction: That was George Packer, not the AP, who this time gave credit to Sadr for a "unilateral ceasefire."

[Crew v1.0]

Harry Reid was wrong -- the war had not been lost, and in fact, now has been won (or so I'm hearing). But remember: Messiah still says invading was the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this galaxy, and any other you might name. So says Love Child's Daddy, Reporting For Duty, and every other pretender CIC.

I am a Democrat (okay, a Bush Democrat), but Tom, this may actually top Truman.

[JabbaTheTutt]

So I have given orders to increase American forces in Anbar Province by 4,000 troops.

ShaZaaam! The surge started in Anbar months before "The Surge" started in Iraq. It didn't require new troops, just a re-deployment. It was a Proof of Concept.

Anbar showed that "clear and hold" worked and to make it work in Baghdad, more troops were needed, thus the additional 40,000 troops.

Why is reality so difficult for some people to accept?

[sophy]

Please do not hesitate to have Hellgate London Palladium . It is funny.