If Barack Obama was not already inclined toward him as a running mate, John McCain and Vladimir Putin in the past week should have helped make up his mind to choose Joe Biden.
His trip to Georgia as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee underscored his credentials to complement Obama's idealism with the experience and know-how to navigate through a world of treacherous policy decisions.
"We must help Georgia rebuild what has been destroyed," Obama said today in a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. "That is why I’m proud to join my friend, Senator Joe Biden, in calling for an additional $1 billion in reconstruction assistance for the people of Georgia."
In the bitter campaign ahead, Republicans would have a harder time persuading voters of their candidate's superiority on national security against a ticket anchored by Biden's five-year record of attempting to resolve the political knots in Iraq rather than pushing on with McCain's mindless flag-waving about victory that is still costing American lives and billions of dollars.
The surest way now for Obama to answer attacks on his good judgment and doubts about his political maturity is to announce his choice of Joe Biden and get on with ending the Bush-McCain era in November.
Showing posts with label Iraq victory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq victory. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Mission Accomplished, Again?
Only the most churlish opponents of the war would want to minimize the low Iraq casualty figures for May or even argue over the Washington Post editorial contention today that "the US-backed government and army may be winning the war."
Any hope of bringing our troops home sooner than later is welcome but, under the circumstances, it would be just as unseemly to claim that this turn of events means John McCain has been right about the war and should be elected to the White House.
If anything, the beginning of the end in Iraq--if that's what it really is--should only deepen our sadness at the loss of more than 4000 American lives, millions of dead and displaced Iraqis, and the US' moral standing in the world.
"If the positive trends continue," the Post editorial observes, "proponents of withdrawing most US troops, such as Mr. Obama, might be able to responsibly carry out further pullouts next year. Still, the likely Democratic nominee needs a plan for Iraq based on sustaining an improving situation, rather than abandoning a failed enterprise."
Call it what they will, but let's start ending the nightmare. If it would get our men and women home safely any sooner, start making plans for President Obama to be inaugurated on an aircraft carrier in front of a banner than reads "Mission Accomplished."
In this case, words don't matter. Lives do.
Any hope of bringing our troops home sooner than later is welcome but, under the circumstances, it would be just as unseemly to claim that this turn of events means John McCain has been right about the war and should be elected to the White House.
If anything, the beginning of the end in Iraq--if that's what it really is--should only deepen our sadness at the loss of more than 4000 American lives, millions of dead and displaced Iraqis, and the US' moral standing in the world.
"If the positive trends continue," the Post editorial observes, "proponents of withdrawing most US troops, such as Mr. Obama, might be able to responsibly carry out further pullouts next year. Still, the likely Democratic nominee needs a plan for Iraq based on sustaining an improving situation, rather than abandoning a failed enterprise."
Call it what they will, but let's start ending the nightmare. If it would get our men and women home safely any sooner, start making plans for President Obama to be inaugurated on an aircraft carrier in front of a banner than reads "Mission Accomplished."
In this case, words don't matter. Lives do.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Iran's Petraeus
As Frederick Kagan spins Neo-Con daydreams of "turning a corner," McClatchy reporters on the ground are telling a different story:
"One of the most powerful men in Iraq isn't an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat. He's an Iranian general, and at times he's more influential than all of them."
Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, as "Tehran's point man on Iraq," is manipulating election of pro-Iranian politicians, meeting often with Iraqi leaders and backing Shiite elements in Iraqi security forces in the torturing and killing of Sunni Muslims.
According to American and Iraqi officials, Suleimani is Iran's Petraeus who has succeeded, among other things, in slipping into Baghdad's Green Zone in 2006 to orchestrate the choice of a new Iraqi prime minister and building intelligence networks in Iran's embassy while providing Shiite Muslim militias with generalship, cash and arms, including mortars and rockets fired at the US Embassy and advanced roadside bombs that have killed hundreds of Americans and Iraqis.
While Kagan maunders in the Weekly Standard about the "new effort to establish security in Iraq" and that "victory is up for grabs," US officials report that roadside bomb attacks in March matched July's record level, and Joint Chief of Staffs Chairman, Adm. Michael Mullen last week accused Suleimani of precipitating the recent battles in Basra by backing Shiite militias and criminal gangs that are trying to control the city's oil-loading facilities.
Dick Cheney and no doubt John McCain will want to answer all this by getting into another war we can't afford, but American voters will have to be given a clear picture of what is really going on in Iraq beyond campaign claims of victory and decide how much more American blood and treasure to spend fighting Middle East enemies on their own ground.
"One of the most powerful men in Iraq isn't an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat. He's an Iranian general, and at times he's more influential than all of them."
Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, as "Tehran's point man on Iraq," is manipulating election of pro-Iranian politicians, meeting often with Iraqi leaders and backing Shiite elements in Iraqi security forces in the torturing and killing of Sunni Muslims.
According to American and Iraqi officials, Suleimani is Iran's Petraeus who has succeeded, among other things, in slipping into Baghdad's Green Zone in 2006 to orchestrate the choice of a new Iraqi prime minister and building intelligence networks in Iran's embassy while providing Shiite Muslim militias with generalship, cash and arms, including mortars and rockets fired at the US Embassy and advanced roadside bombs that have killed hundreds of Americans and Iraqis.
While Kagan maunders in the Weekly Standard about the "new effort to establish security in Iraq" and that "victory is up for grabs," US officials report that roadside bomb attacks in March matched July's record level, and Joint Chief of Staffs Chairman, Adm. Michael Mullen last week accused Suleimani of precipitating the recent battles in Basra by backing Shiite militias and criminal gangs that are trying to control the city's oil-loading facilities.
Dick Cheney and no doubt John McCain will want to answer all this by getting into another war we can't afford, but American voters will have to be given a clear picture of what is really going on in Iraq beyond campaign claims of victory and decide how much more American blood and treasure to spend fighting Middle East enemies on their own ground.
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