"Obama, Democrats, and the Surge"

...Obama, in typical fashion, is trying to use the success of the surge he opposed to justify his long-held commitment to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq as quickly as possible...

...Judgment, according to Obama, is what qualifi es him to be commander in chief...

...But Obama is not alone...

...it won’t deter terrorists, who have a completely different agenda...

...experts from across the spectrum—military and civilian, conservative and liberal— expressed great skepticism about it...

...We went through two weeks of hearings on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

...And in reaction to the president’s January 23 State of the Union address, Obama said, I don’t think the president’s strategy is going to work...

...In October 2006—three months before the president’s new strategy was unveiled—Obama said, “It is clear at this point that we cannot, through putting in more troops or maintaining the presence that we have, expect that somehow the situation is going to improve, and we have to do something signifi cant to break the pattern that we’ve been in right now...

...it won’t turn back the clock and avoid the civil war that is already underway...

...Leading the surrender was none other than Barack Obama, the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for president and among the most vocal critics of the counterinsurgency plan that has transformed the Iraq war from a potentially catastrophic loss to what may turn out to be a historically signifi cant victory...

...In addition, the Obama campaign scrubbed its presidential website to remove criticism of the surge...

...On January 10, 2007, the night the surge was announced, Obama declared, “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq are going to solve the sectarian violence there...

...Are you not worried, though, that all the gains that have been achieved over the past year might be lost...

...Also in April, Senator Christopher Dodd said, “We don’t need a surge of troops in Iraq—we need a surge of diplomacy and politics...

...Virtually the entire Democratic party, including every Democrat running for president, opposed the surge...

...A day later, Obama gave a speech in which he declared for the fi rst time that “true success” and “victory in Iraq” were possible...

...it won’t rein in the militias...

...For example, Senator Joseph Biden—considered by some pundits a foreign policy sage—declared, a few days before the surge was announced, “If he surges another 20, 30 [thousand], or whatever number he’s going to, into Baghdad, it’ll be a tragic mistake...

...There haven’t been gains, Wolf,” Pelosi replied...

...My suggestion to the president has been that the only way we’re going to change the dynamic in Iraq and start seeing political commendation is actually if we create a system of phased redeployment...

...Blitzer asked...

...In February of this year, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about the success of the surge in Iraq...

...And when Americans cast their vote on November 4, they should carefully consider how Barack Obama and the entire Democratic party fought ferociously and relentlessly to undermine a policy that has worked extraordinarily well and may yet prove to be among the most successful military plans in modern times...

...Kerry’s fellow Massachusetts senator, Ted Kennedy, declared that any troop increase would be “an immense new mistake...

...In the 18 months since President Bush announced the surge,” Obama wrote, “our troops have performed heroically in bringing down the level of violence...

...Rarely has a political party been so uniformly wrong, in such an obvious way, on such an important matter...

...In April 2007, Senate majority leader Harry Reid declared the Iraq war “lost” and insisted, “This surge is not accomplishing anything...

...In September 2007, Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic majority whip, in anticipation of congressional testimony by General Petraeus, said, “By carefully manipulating the statistics, the Bush-Petraeus report will try to persuade us that violence in Iraq is decreasing and thus the surge is working...

...This is a failure...

...Every knowledgeable person who has examined the Iraq situation for the past several years—Baker and Hamilton, senior military offi cials, junior offi cers—has drawn the same conclusion—there is no military solution in Iraq...

...So what can we discern about Obama’s judgment on the surge, easily the most important national security decision since the Iraq war began in March 2003...

...A week later, he insisted the surge strategy would “not prove to be one that changes the dynamics signifi - cantly...

...it won’t provide security...

...But turning Iraq into a winning political issue won’t be nearly as easy as Obama once thought...

...This is a failure...

...Representative Dennis Kucinich, in this instance speaking for the mainstream of his party, put it this way: “It has been proven time and time again that troop surges don’t work...

...It won’t end the violence...

...Democrats, then, have compounded their initial bad judgment about the surge with reckless obstinacy...

...Last Monday, July 14, Obama wrote a New York Times op-ed in which he acknowledged the success of the surge...

...To answer that question, we need to revisit what Obama said about the surge around the time it was announced...

...they therefore viewed the success of the surge as a terribly inconvenient development, one they sought to deny to the point that they looked silly and out of touch...

...The gains have not produced the desired effect, which is the reconciliation of Iraq...

...New tactics have protected the Iraqi population, and the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda—greatly weakening its effectiveness...

...To insist upon a surge is wrong...

...They embraced with religious zeal the belief that the Iraq war was lost...

...BY PETER WEHNER This was the week that the Democratic party ran up the white fl ag when it comes to the surge in Iraq...

...He has stepped into a trap of his own making...

...Even if the fi gures were right, the conclusion is wrong...

...A month later Representative David Obey, asked if the surge strategy was working, offered the view that if violence is decreasing in Iraq, it may be because insurgents “are running out of people to kill...

...And he continued to remain wrong even as mounting evidence of its success gave way to overwhelming evidence of its success...

...he was spectacularly wrong...

...In July, after evidence was amassing that the surge was working, Obama said, “My assessment is that the surge has not worked...

...Worse, Democrats acted as if they had a vested interest in an American defeat...

...And as recently as last month, Governor Bill Richardson, when asked if he was ready to concede that John McCain had been right in proposing the surge because it seemed to be having a positive impact, answered, “Absolutely not...

...Senator John Kerry said this in February 2007: “The simple fact is that sending in over 20,000 additional troops isn’t the answer—in fact, it’s a tragic mistake...

...Obama, then, was not only wrong about the surge...

...As ethno-sectarian violence in Iraq rapidly declined, as al Qaeda absorbed tremendous military blows, and as political accommodation and legislative achievements have emerged, Democrats, rather than welcoming the progress, grew agitated...

...The trap was set when Obama repeatedly insisted that his superior “judgment” on Iraq is more important than experience in national security affairs...

...In fact, I think it will do the reverse...

...Peter Wehner, former deputy assistant to President Bush, is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center...

...The debate, then, is over, and the (landslide) verdict is in: The surge has been a tremendous success...

...Hillary Clinton, on the night the surge was announced, said, “Based on the president’s speech tonight, I cannot support his proposed escalation of the war in Iraq...

...And, frankly, the president, I think, has not been willing to consider that option, not because it’s not militarily sound but because he continues to cling to the belief that somehow military solutions are going to lead to victory in Iraq...