What has changed ????
He was ardently opposed to the surge....
Barrack Obama said:
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today introduced binding and comprehensive legislation that not only reverses the President's … read more dangerous and ill-conceived escalation of the Iraq war, but also sets a new course for U.S. policy that can bring a responsible end to the war and bring our troops home.Our troops have performed brilliantly in Iraq, but no amount of American soldiers can solve the political differences at the heart of somebody else's civil war," Obama said. "That's why I have introduced a plan to not only stop the escalation of this war, but begin a phased redeployment that can pressure the Iraqis to finally reach a political settlement and reduce the violence." Realizing there can be no military solution in Iraq, Obama's plan focuses instead on reaching a political solution in Iraq, protecting our interests in the region, and bringing this war to a responsible end. The legislation commences redeployment of U.S. forces to Afghanistan; and to other points in the region no later than May 1, 2007 with the goal of removing all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008, a date that is consistent with the expectation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. The plan allows for a limited number of U.S. troops to remain as basic force protection, to engage in counter-terrorism, and to continue the training of Iraqi security forces. If the WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Barrack Obama (D-IL) today introduced binding and comprehensive legislation that not only reverses the President's … read more dangerous and ill-conceived escalation of the Iraq war, but also sets a new course for U.S. policy that can bring a responsible end to the war and bring our troops home.â¨â¨"Our troops have performed brilliantly in Iraq, but no amount of American soldiers can solve the political differences at the heart of somebody else's civil war," Obama said. "That's why I have introduced a plan to not only stop the escalation of this war, but begin a phased redeployment that can pressure the Iraqis to finally reach a political settlement and reduce the violence."â¨â¨ Realizing there can be no military solution in Iraq, Obama's plan focuses instead on reaching a political solution in Iraq, protecting our interests in the region, and bringing this war to a responsible end. The legislation commences redeployment of U.S. forces to Afghanistan; and to other points in the region no later than May 1, 2007 with the goal of removing all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008, a date that is consistent with the expectation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. The plan allows for a limited number of U.S. troops to remain as basic force protection, to engage in counter-terrorism, and to continue the training of Iraqi security forces. If the Iraqis are successful in meeting the thirteen benchmarks for progress laid out by the Bush Administration, this plan also allows for the temporary suspension of the redeployment, provided Congress agrees that the benchmarks have been met and that the suspension is in the national security interest of the United States. â¨â¨"The American people have been asked to be patient too many times, too many lives have been lost and too many billions have been spent," Obama said. "It's time for a policy that can bring a responsible end to this war and bring our troops home."
And now admits he was wrong....er....didn't anticipate the success....er....well as he he says, nobody has a crystal ball (But McCain and Bush did get it right). Well that's true but the President and John McCain fought hard for this successful surge to allow for exactly the kind of success that has taken place. In Obama's interview with ABC's Terry Moran that will air tonight Obama said it was "fair" to notice that he did not anticipate that the surge of U.S. troops into Iraq would be coincident with the so-called Sunni Awakening and the decisions of Shia militias to reduce their footprints, the combination of which led to measurable declines in violence."
Thats political speak for "My judgment was wrong and Petreaus' direct work with tribal leaders while the troops quelled violence succeeded."
He added "I did not anticipate, and I think that this is a fair characterization, the convergence of not only the surge but the Sunni awakening in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decided that they had had enough with Al Qaeda, in the Shii’a community the militias standing down to some degrees. So what you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, I think that my assessment would have been correct."
In political speak he is admitting that the local to central aproach Petraeus had implemented in parrelel with the surge to get tribes to sign off on peace agreements was effective and he didn't anticipate it working so well. If i hadn't gone ell then he would have been right. Bad judgement again.
A guy can say he wants timelines and troop withdraws for a year and a half and when, in about 6 months, a 16 month timeline looks realistic as long as conditions remain stable he eventually becomes correct and now claims credibility and good judgement? Wow, talk about a low bar.
Moran noted that Obama had claimed that the surge "would not make a significant dent in the violence."
Responded Obama: "In the violence in Iraq overall, right. So the point that I was making at the time was that the political dynamic was the driving force between that sectarian violence. And we could try to keep a lid on it, but if these underlining dynamic continued to bubble up and explode the way they were, then we would be in a difficult situation. I am glad that in fact those political dynamic shifted at the same time that our troops did outstanding work."
Hello......they didn't shift by coincience. This was always the 'Petreaus Plan'. You know, the one that took 'an intentional suspension of disbelief.' That was the whole point of the Surge, Mr. Judgement - quell the sectarian violence so that political reconciliation can occur. It's no coincidence.
"But," asked Moran,"if the country had pursued your policy of withdrawing in the face of this horrific violence, what do you think Iraq would look like now?"
Obama said it would be hard to speculate. "The Sunnis might have made the same decisions at that time. The ShiiapproachPetraeusparallel’as might have made some similar decisions based on political calculation. There was ethnic cleansing in Baghdad that actually took the violence level down," he said.
Yeah, it might have just gotten better on it's own. AlQ would have just quit spontaneously and stopped working to instigate a civil war. I see this guy has coincidence and 'maybe it will just get better' as his crutch. VERY bad judgment there.
Obama also told Moran that there were circumstances under which he could revise his instruction to U.S. generals to begin withdrawing combat brigades at the pace of one-to-two per month.
"I've always reserved the right, uh, to say---let's say that ethnic, uh, ethnic fighting broke out once again---I've reserved the right to say---I don't--I'm not going to stand idly by if genocide is occurring. I'm not going to stand idly by if vital United States interests are at stake. Um, so in that sense yes, I retain the flexibility anyone who in the job of commander in chief is constantly reassessing facts, risks, and so forth."
In other words "If my judgmentcoincidencePetraeusJudgment conjudgmentjudgmenttinues to be bad I reserve the right to claim I would change my stance.....again....as anyone that is commander in chief would.
Yeah, he gets it now. But he now has to convince people he wasn't WRONG, it was just a coincidence and couldn't be anticipated and it might have gotten better on it's own anyway.
Nothing has changed eh......
OH, the link.......
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=5417331&page=1
. This country can`t afford a fence rider for Pres.