William Kristol, The New York Times, January 14, 2008
“Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.” Thus spoke Bill Clinton last Monday night, exasperated by Barack Obama’s claim that he – unlike Hillary Clinton – had been consistently right (or wrong, depending on your point of view) on the Iraq war.
Now in fact, Obama has been pretty consistent in his opposition to the war. But Bill Clinton is right in this respect: Obama’s view of the current situation in Iraq is out of touch with reality. In this, however, Obama is at one with Hillary Clinton and the entire leadership of the Democratic Party.
When President Bush announced the surge of troops in support of a new counterinsurgency strategy a year ago, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Democratic Congressional leaders predicted failure. Obama, for example, told Larry King that he didn’t believe additional U.S. troops would “make a significant dent in the sectarian violence that’s taking place there.” Then in April, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, asserted that “this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything.” In September, Clinton told Gen. David Petraeus that his claims of progress in Iraq required a “willing suspension of disbelief.”
The Democrats were wrong in their assessments of the surge. Attacks per week on American troops are now down about 60 percent from June. Civilian deaths are down approximately 75 percent from a year ago. December 2007 saw the second-lowest number of U.S. troops killed in action since March 2003. And according to Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, last month’s overall number of deaths, which includes Iraqi security forces and civilian casualties as well as U.S. and coalition losses, may well have been the lowest since the war began.
Do Obama and Clinton and Reid now acknowledge that they were wrong? Are they willing to say the surge worked?
What differentiates Clinton from the other candidates is that she will bring more of the same right-ward drift in our discourse and politics. This is lunacy.
BC said: “How could you know that? I think, once she’s elected, she’s going to do what she thinks is best.”
BC, I think you want a pony.
Since when has any politician done what they thought was “best”. Best for whom. The ones that bought the whores, that’s who.
Comment by VTindependent — January 14, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
And I’m supposed to give a flying fuck what this lying neocon bastard says about anything…why, exactly?
Comment by Joseph52 — January 14, 2008 @ 11:29 pm
A truism from my childhood down in the red clay draws back in glasspack hollow comes to mind
after hearing that Kristol was finally right about one thing:
“A blind sow finds an acorn sometimes”.
But since attacks and casualties are down in Iraq Kristol is trying to credit Bush in person for this,
I got news for you,sir and I use the term loosely:
Bush has never fired a shot in anger in Iraq and neither have I but You wont hear Me claiming credit for turning the tide.
The whole precept for going and everything since has been based on Lies upon Lies.
Lies that We would be greeted as liberators,
and that it would take six weeks tops,
and Sadaam had WMD’s and was trying to get centrifuge tubes to process uranium and that Sadaam was responsible for 9/11.
The whole thing has been about though was generating public support for occupation and the construction of a pipeline in afghanistan
and later the oilfields of Iraq.
So the democrats were wrong about the surge,It is’nt as if they
committed any impeachable crimes say for Lying
to make a quick buck or maybe for getting a Hummer in the pantry.
The important thing here is that the troops are not suffering as badly,or could that be in fact
another cherry-picking lie from a gang of the most notorious liars in history?
Comment by Rainlander — January 15, 2008 @ 1:18 am
Dear High Voltage, this “lying neocon bastard” thanks you for the great article.
I would add, however, that the expense of Iraq is partly causing the looming recession, and expecially the inflation of the dollar – the printing of money being an excellent way for GW to pay the bills without raising taxes.
We need to get out of Iraq as quickly as possible.
Because Congress refuses to reduce other spending to compensate, this war is ruining our economy. Of course there are many other reasons to get out, such as loss of our good men, but that has already been said over and over.
I am not interested in seeing the United States go broke in its efforts to bring democracy to Iraq. If they want it, now is the time for them to go for it.
Comment by grimgold — January 15, 2008 @ 11:12 am