Obama: Military Succeeded In Every Mission In Iraq, But Bush Still Lost
More of that bi-partisanship and unity Obama is famous for:
Despite touting the military’s victories in Iraq during his Friday speech in North Carolina, Obama isn’t prepared to declare the American invasion a success.
“I think what we can say unequivocally is that our military succeeded in every mission that was given to them,” Obama said. “I don’t think we can rightly say that the strategy cooked up by our civilian leadership, with respect to either going in, in the first place, or how the war was managed, was a success.”
Violence is way down in Iraq. An elected government is in charge and taking over the country. And our military is victorious. But Bush lost. Because admitting that Bush did something right just isn’t convenient for Obama.
By the way, The One is taking some heat from Congressional Democrats for daring to institute a responsible draw-down plan for Iraq.
Appearing on PBS’s “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer,” President Barack Obama had some advice for Democrats expressing surprise at his newly defined Iraq policy: Start listening.
“They, maybe, weren’t paying attention to what I said during the campaign. I said that we were going to take 16 months to withdraw our combat troops from Iraq. We are now taking 18 months instead of 16,” Obama told Lehrer, noting he’d long supported leaving residual forces there and using troops for training missions. “Obviously, because of consultations with commanders on the ground — something I also said I would do — there are some modifications to the plan.”
Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, among other Democrats, have expressed concern at Obama’s plan to leave as many as 50,000 American troops in Iraq through 2011.
I’ve said before that I’m supportive of Obama’s plan for withdrawal in Iraq. his in ability to be honest about how wrong he’s been about the war aside, I think what Obama has proposed is a perfectly reasonable plan for bringing the war to end.
And “reasonable” is probably what’s tripping Pelosi and Reid up.
