Posted by Tina
“Obama praises Iraqis on provincial elections” – AP
** President Barack Obama is congratulating Iraqis on their provincial elections. *** He says the elections for provincial councils were significant and peaceful. The president calls the voting an important step forward as Iraqis continue taking responsibility for their future. *** Obama notes that the U.S. provided technical assistance to the Iraqi electoral commission, as did the U.N. and other international groups. **
This is the best our new president and the AP can do? It wasn’t that long ago that we were (still) debating the wisdom of implementing the surge in Iraq:
Surge To Victory, IBD – May 27, 2008
** They said the surge would fail. They claimed we had no allies. They called Iraq a quagmire. They sought to cut and run. Now, our victories over terror are accelerating across the world. *** Take a look at what happened in the global war on terror just over the Memorial Day weekend: Iraqi forces ran al-Qaida terrorists out of Mosul, the terror organization’s final urban stronghold. That victory reduces the killers to fringe areas with little public support, and a truncated capacity to recruit and strike terror in Iraq’s cities. Al-Qaida has “never been closer to defeat than they are now,” said Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq. *** Iraqi troops also cleaned out Basra and Sadr City, reducing any prospect for domestic insurgents to take power by force. Along with al-Qaida, these terrorists may try to continue, but the will is fading as the pressure is ratcheted up. **
If we downplay that whole “Iraq thing” maybe we can pretend it hasn’t been a success.