McCain Blooper Reel: A Matter of History

It should go without saying that John McCain is leaning very, very heavily on Iraq, and particularly the effectiveness of the surge, in order to make his case that he would be a superior Commander-in-Chief to Barack Obama. In case you haven't been following the most recent round of sniping between Obama and McCain, it goes roughly like this:

McCAIN. First there was the surge, then there was stability. Surge good!
OBAMA. Right, but the stated purpose of the surge was to make space for a political reconciliation, which didn't happen. Surge bad!
McCAIN. But other awesome stuff happened after the surge too, like the Anbar Awakening. Surge good!

(See, I told you it would be rough.)

Then, unfortunately, the facts got in the way. It seems that the Anbar Awakening (or Sunni Awakening, or Iraqi Awakening; whichever term you prefer, it refers to the establishment of a number of councils of Sunnis who cooperated with the American military against Sunni insurgents) actually happened before the surge. TPM strings it all together:

As McCain might say: "I mean, that's just a matter of history."

Evaluating the Surge

I'm back from across the border! I've got some new organisms living in my stomach and some new insights on  the immigration debate, but those will come soon.  

First things first,  here's a  scathing portrayal of just how, and why, the Surge is failing miserably, by Patrick Cockburn, a brilliant British journalist for The Guardian. 

Surge? Remember that thing Bush made a huge deal out of, and we all protested, then everyone sort of forgot about ? (what's it called in current CNN parlance? "Iraq fatigue" among the general public? Pathetic. I'm sure the Iraqis are a hell of a lot more fatigued than we are.)  Anyway, the surge (surprise surprise) is still going on, still not working.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2841425.ece 

Filiblustering Baghdad

Pathetic maneuvering and stalling going on down in Washington today, in a remarkable effort by Senate Republicans to do absolutely nothing about the war. They're jumping off the crazy train that is administration foreign policy faster than you can say "surge", yet are refusing to debate any of the 4 proposed resolutions on Iraq currently on the table. I was genuinely moved by the outspoken criticism of the war by people such as John Warner (R-VA) but the current Senate stalemate has Warner effectively filibustering his own resolution.

Here's the traffic report-- it's way backed up down there: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/05/AR2007020500675_2.html

This is John McCain's War Now

When 2008 rolls around, if John McCain is the Republican nominee for President and we are still in Iraq, remember that he was the one who first advocated we send more troops to Iraq as President Bush has unilaterally decided to do. Given that our troops are causing more unrest than they are quelling and that we do not have the capabilities to stop a civil war, more troops will only lead to more deaths.

Bush's escalation, and that is what it is because this will not be a temporary increase in troop levels, is only prolonging this disastrous adventure in Iraq. If John McCain wants to become President, make sure he does not forget that the blood of these 20,000 brave soldiers is on his hands.