Joe Biden Takes Credit For Iraq Success

Faced with having been wrong about Iraq in train wreck proportions the Democrats have some serious spinning to do. But I’m not sure the public is going to buy their attempts to take credit the success we’re now seeing in Iraq.
That’s not stopping Joe Biden, though. Here’s what Biden had to say about the surge earlier this year in April:

WASHINGTON — A leading Democrat on Saturday declared last year’s troop buildup in Iraq a failure. Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the military push didn’t succeed because U.S. troops remain committed there in large numbers and political reconciliation has not been achieved. “The purpose of the surge was to bring violence in Iraq down so that its leaders could come together politically,” said Biden, D-Del., in this week’s Democratic radio address. “Violence has come down, but the Iraqis have not come together.” He later added, “There is little evidence the Iraqis will settle their differences peacefully any time soon.”

Now flash forward several months (and one VP nomination) and here’s what Biden had to say about Iraq just yesterday on Meet The Press:

SEN. BIDEN: No. The surge helped make that–what made is possible in Anbar province is they did what I’d suggested two and a half years ago: gave local control. They turned over and they said to the Sunnis in Anbar province, “We promise you, don’t worry, you’re not going to have any Shia in here. There’s going to be no national forces in here. We’re going to train your forces to help you fight al-Qaeda.” And that you–what you had was the awakening. The awakening was not an awakening by us, it was an awakening of the Sunnis in Anbar province willing to fight.

Pathetic, no? First Biden claims the surge didn’t work. And then when he can no longer ignore the fact that it did work, he claims that his ideas were responsible for it.
And he throws in the old “it really wasn’t anything we did” ruse for good measure. Because the Sunni awakening just sort of happened, and our kicking al Qaeda’s ass all over Iraq didn’t have anything to do with it.
Remeber: This is the guy Barack Obama picked to shore up his foreign policy credentials. Sort of speaks volumes about Obama’s judgment, doesn’t it?