“…meme out there, and they aren’t going to reel it back in.
rbj on July 23, 2008 at 9:33 AM

“meme out there” What kind of comment is that?
A writer at Der Spiegel wrote…

The reason the magazine scores so many high level interviews is that the editors agree to allow the subjects to “authorize” the interviews before they go to press. It wasn’t just a slip of the tongue, in other words: Maliki not only endorsed Obama’s plans for withdrawing from Iraq, but his office then explicitly approved the endorsement before it was printed.

“…The denials, then, were doubly facetious. Spiegel couldn’t say so, though, without revealing its embarrassing authorization policy.”

The important thing here is that the Post is continuing to send a very loud message to Obama – and the the rest of the media, if they will listen – that he is a lightweight and this stuff is way too important for simplistic sloganeering and talking points. I think the Post fears another Jimmy Carter disaster here.

This editorial from the Washington Post is very surprising to me. They are indeed harsh with Obama. I get the feeling we may see the paper endorse McCain!

Today, in speaking about his strategic thinking on Iraq, they say:

Yet Mr. Obama’s account of his strategic vision remains eccentric.

“Irrational”, “ahistoric”, “eccentric”.

These are powerful words.

These are words which “take no prisoners”.

They are not nuanced.

In using language such as this in regard to the foreign policy centrepiece of the media’s annointed Messiah the Washington Post is making significant judgements about Sen. Obama’s intellectual approach…even ability…in dealing with the most important foreign policy issue facing the United States.

This is not coming from McCain, nor from conservative bloggers. This is coming from one of the most important newspapers in the entire United States. This needs to be emphasized by every commentator. Why isn’t the rest of the MSM picking up on this?

If this does not find its way into McCain campaign ads, it leads to another question: “Why did Sen. McCain work so hard to get the GOP nomination if he didn’t want to win the election?”

The MSM were willing to fawn over Obama when he was all about vague HopenChange, but when Obama’s stubbornness flies in the face of facts and logic, they have a dilemma: Do they keep propping up Obama, and lose all credibility? After all, even if Obama becomes President, the WaPo will still have to sell newspapers, and CBS will need advertisers in 2009, and who will buy if they’re not credible?

WaPo wonders whether Obama, media truthful on Iraq

The Messiah, will give the Iraqis a Chicago gangsta deal they can’t refuse.

He added, “The only way we’re going to get those troops over there in a meaningful way is if we are taking them from someplace else. So that’s something that I have to factor in.”

Translation: I have to figure in the things that Petraeus hasn’t thought about because he doesn’t get the big picture.

So Obama goes to Iraq to speak to a General who has just pulled off one of the greatest turnarounds in military history, and he starts implying that the guy doesn’t have a grasp of the situation as profound as his own.

How long ago was it that Hillary said it required a suspension of disbelief to believe the same General?

And people don’t have confidence in Democrats when it comes to national security? Go figure!

Mr. Obama conceded that the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, opposed setting a timetable for withdrawing forces. But if elected president, Mr. Obama said he would have to factor in a wider degree of concerns, including boosting the U.s. economy as well as expanding the fight in Afghanistan, a situation he called “perilous and urgent.”

“If I were in his shoes, I’d probably feel the same way,” Mr. Obama said of Gen. Petraeus. “But my job as a candidate for president and a potential commander in chief extends beyond Iraq, so what we saw in Afghanistan, for example, where you’ve got a deteriorating security situation and all the commanders uniformly indicated that two to three brigades would be extraordinarily helpful in allowing =them to accomplish their goals.”

He added, “The only way we’re going to get those troops over there in a meaningful way is if we are taking them from someplace else. So that’s something that I have to factor in.”

Again, I don’t understand by McCain did not address this directly and immediately.

volsense on July 23, 2008 at 8:55 AM

You would think…but how many voters out there are really paying attention beyond what they see on TV?

The media must have been really embarrassed over the blatancy of its Obama fawning and figure they have to throw at least a few bad editorials in there to maintain the premise of objectivity.
Outlander on July 23, 2008 at 8:59 AM

Don’t expect this kind of “objectivity” from Shipley’s “believe it or not” New York Times.

Now past the need to neutralize (eliminate) Hussein for all of the obvious reasons he posed, Ed points out the concluding rationale that required our attention with Iraq in his paragraph “Exactly. Iraq has…”

Now Obama’s famous quip applies:
“Iraq is not the Iraq I knew.”
It is no longer nomads no man’s land to the West.
It is no longer an imposed monarchy.
It is no longer an anti-Western dictatorship.
IRAQ IS AN ISLAMIC CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY.

Congratulations are in order for GWB having midwifed the new Iraqi identity against ALL odds, united resistance from both Islam and Germany/France, et.al. that made our allies buckle under duress.

There is folklore that says once you save a life, you are thereafter responsible for it. Compassionate conservatism may have all of the finest intentions, but that has no power over the new Iraq legitimately elected power players. So beware any “trust” or “friendship” as the slightest tick will set off the worst response. Whatever al-Maliki hints has more relevance in reality than what pussification he publicly endorses. Right now is when the USA has the winning hand of cards in this game called life; don’t fold to pacify the intolerant. At this point of negotiations for transfer of power, we need to stick to our guns and demand our due:
1. Oil in lieu of the lives of our troops and for the huge expense covering their liberation, and a permanent oil sales treaty once the above expenses are paid;
2. Permanent US Military Installation in Iraq protecting our oil interests with them and allowing our deployment through Iraq elsewhere.

Nothing in life is free. And the Iraqis know as well as anyone that there is nothing free about Freedom.

As per future political forecasts regarding Iraq/Babylon, we have our own book of scriptures prophesying what becomes of Babylon the Great in her many incarnations:

Jeremiah 51:49
“Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

Revelation 14:8
A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

Revelation 18:2
With a mighty voice he shouted: “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.

Heaven forbid Obama leadership into corruption.

Democrats went “all in” for defeat in Iraq in 2006. They were sure we were losing, and they were determined to make sure we did, so they could spend the next 40 years blaming Bush and the Republicans. They blew it, and now we have actually won the war in Iraq, but they are stuck with the tar baby of defeat now. So they are desperately trying to change the subject back to Afghanistan and Osama, hoping that perhaps we can still lose there and give them the defeat they crave.

Barack Obama is really playing with fire here. Trying to act all macho and waving his you-know-what around to Pakistan – a country with a half-billion Muslims, a shaky government, and nuclear weapons. Who gives a crap about Osama bin Laden anymore? We have pretty much wiped out Al Qaeda, and bin Laden is a cipher with no troops and no power. He is exactly where we need him to be. We’ve avoided making him a martyr by killing him and avoided having to give him a lawyer and a trial by capturing him. Yet Obama seems ready to do just that, and risk a nuclear war with Pakistan in the process. If this doesn’t scare the hell out of you, it should. If this man is elected President, we may end up with a situation that will make the Cuban Missile Crisis look like a day at the playground.

The Post is doing yeoman’s work here, trying to drag the rest of the media into a reality check on Obama and the rest of the Democrats. As I said following their last editorial, the folks at the Post have had a front row seat for Presidential Potty Training a few times now and they know how ugly it can be. Because all the leading pols do read the Post every day, it may actually have some influence here. Let’s hope so.

My opinion: Obama is a muslim with a plan to remove American power from the world.

There are five steps, I won’t call them pillars as that might imply some respect for his religion.

1) Ratify The Law of the Sea Treaty. This gives the UN the ability to regulate what happens on the oceans. Eventually the Navy will be unable to operate.

2) Ratify Son of Kyoto. This would force a massive transfer of wealth from the first world to the third world, fatally weakening our industrial base.

3) Give the International Criminal Court at the Hague final authority over our laws. No commander will ever feel safe to engage in war fighting again.

4) Agree that the UN Directive on The Disarmament of Civilian Populations must apply to the USA too. There is a Supreme Court problem, but our victory was down to only one man. That can be dealt with. Don’t just dismiss it.

5) This one is really easy. Ensure that no decent American volunteers continue to enlist in the military and serve under him. All he needs to do is to continue to act like the total asshol that he is.

These five steps will reduce the USA to a second rate country within a few years and make safe the rise of the New Caliphate in the Middle East.
That’s what it has always been about. Obama isn’t stupid. He has to lie and lying is difficult so he makes errors.

I believe that it would be fair to say that Obama is trying to kill the USA.

They disagree with him but the water carrying press isn’t focusing on that at all given the thrills up their legs.

It’s not at all clear if Obama will listen. He won’t clarify how many troops would remain in Iraq, but remain they will.

I agree…and I haven’t heard anything from Obama about how useless NATO is. He seems to want to use this as another way to slam President Bush. Of course, it is all Bush’s fault there is still violence in Afghanistan.

My son-in-law was stationed in Afghanistan when the war first started. The terrain is horrible..the pictures he brought home showed nothing but desolate landscape…kinda like ANWR.

With Democrats, simply take your pick. With Obama, all three fit the mold quite nicely.

becki51758 on July 23, 2008 at 9:01 AM

Afghanistan is a whole different animal than Iraq in terms of tactics. I’m not sure throwing lots more troops in will have the same effect it did in Iraq. The terrain is different and so are the indigs. The Taliban is nurtured by Pakistan. That isn’t going to stop without some massive carnage in the Northwest Province and NATO isn’t going to do that. We’re not going to win the hearts and minds of the Pashtuns and we won’t destroy all their villages to break them.

I can’t.

Not since Obama refused to say how many troops he would have remain in Iraq.

And right now US troops are safer in Iraq than in Afghanistan.

Barack Obama cannot end the war in Iraq.

The war is over.

The peace is not secure, but the war is over.