Jul 22 2008
Obama Admits Surge Worked But Still Would Not Support It
In an interview with Marc Ambinder, Barack Obama admitted he was wrong about the surge in Iraq and that it was a success - while still playing the “if” game. Well I would have been right “if.” He has failed to realize there is no “if.”
Barack 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.
In an interview with ABC’s Terry Moran, Obama said that he “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.”
After admitting the surge worked Obama tells Terry Moran with ABC News that despite the progress in Iraq he still would not have supported the surge.
Moran: “‘[T]he surge of U.S. troops, combined with ordinary Iraqis’ rejection of both al Qaeda and Shiite extremists have transformed the country.
Attacks are down more than 80% nationwide. U.S. combat casualties have plummeted, five this month so far, compared with 78 last July, and Baghdad has a pulse again.’
If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you — would you support the surge?”
Obama: “No, because — keep in mind that -”
Moran: “You wouldn’t?”
Obama: “Well, no, keep — these kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult . Hindsight is 20/20. I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time, we had to change the political debate, because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with.”
Moran: “And so, when pressed, Barack Obama says he still would have opposed the surge.” (ABC’s “World News,” 7/21/08)
This guy is an absolute imbecile.
