The Obama Plan Meets Catastrophic Victory

Powerline has the video from ABC if you didn't previously catch it.  Ground commanders are pretty much saying that Obama's plan is impossible unless he really does want to leave Iraq like Napoleon had to leave Russia: dumping bodies and equipment on a long retreat as a horde of cossacks harass you on the way out.

Honestly, though, if I was Obama about now, I'd be thinking seriously about kicking Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in the pants.  These two made double damn sure that the Democrats moved so far to the left on Iraq that the only way Obama was going to win the Democrat Primaries was by advocating idiotic policy.  It is one of the things that helped sink Hillary.  She was too pragmatic about Iraq, believe it or not.  She might not have liked going in, she might not like its conduct, and she might have been a once upon a time 60's SDS liberal, but she did know a thing or two about securing American Interests. 

Then again, maybe Obama needs to blame himself.  If he were honest, at least with himself, he'd admit that he literally did not know a damn thing about Iraq, it's conditions or the political situation.  In fact, Obama let the triangulation of the Democrat party on Iraq become his albatross.  I said triangulation, because these Democrats have been counting on Iraq being better, but not necessarily "good".  They would have sold Iraq to Tehran in a heartbeat if it meant pulling the troops out and letting someone else worry about security.  They would have done that because, for all their talk about letting people sort out their own problems, only an extreme idiot who never wanted to see his or her party elected to national office again would be happy if Iraq blew up and the Middle East, supplying most of the world's economy with oil, went to hell in a hand basket.

Of course, for all the Democrat's talking about women's rights, religious freedom, gay marriage and any number of supposed "liberal" concepts, the selling of Iraq to Tehran for "stability" would have meant 25 million more people under one form of Islamic fundamentalism or another and there is nothing "liberal" about that. 

Still, what Obama and Company did not count on was, as Gen. Tommy Franks once said, a "catastrophic victory".  In other words, the troops on the ground won the war faster than political events moved back home. 

Now, Obama has to recover from the faux pas of letting the party line lead his campaign on Iraq.  He's going to try to do that, not by really knowing anything about Iraq, but by having his handlers tell him what to say, making a quick jump over to Iraq, act like he's seen something and learned something new and that he has to revise his original plan. 

Not a lot, mind you.  Obama isn't suddenly going to go from "get them out in 18 months" to "100 years in Iraq".  He'll just tell people what the generals are saying couched in Democrat Presidential hopeful terms.  That a new security agreement has placed Iraq forces in the lead of Iraqi security.  That the US is simply training and assisting in logistics.  That the security has improved enough that these forces, that will be operating under Iraq sovereignty, will not be in direct combat, but will be able to defend themselves if they are attacked while security is transitioned totally to the Iraqi government. 

Thus, these troops, much more safe and out of harms way, can be removed at a much more leisurely pace as they continue to withdraw forces.  This will insure their continued safety and security that might otherwise be compromised by a hasty withdrawal.   

And, Voila!  Obama, who knew nothing, will become Obama that knows everything because, in fact, he will have simply and linguistically shaped the Generals' existing plans to his political message without ever changing his insistence that Iraq = Bad.

My friends, there is nothing "new" in politics about that.

The really sad part though is that, for political reasons, not one Democrat and certainly not any Democrat President, will give credit where credit is due: to the soldiers.  Oh, sure, these guys are going to talk about how the soldiers pulled Iraq out of the fire after those horrible Republican's messed it up.  But, I mean to say, no Democrat will ever acknowledge this "catastrophic victory" in Iraq.  Any recognition for the incredible job our men and women did will be tepid at best.  A round of "golf claps", half smiles and rushed events to hand out a few medals (probably done by the brass at the Pentagon with little fan fare or note by a President Obama) and then it will be all gone.

While some folks are patting Obama on his back for being "pragmatic" in his shifting language on Iraq and others are lambasting him for breaking his primary cover, what most everyone now seems to be skipping over is that this Junior Senator actually didn't know a damn thing.  He didn' t know if we were winning or losing and he didn't care to find out.  He's an empty shirt on the laundry line that gets filled out depending on which direction the wind is blowing.  

Is that the kind of President Obama is going to be?   A wishy washy, know nothing, "blows in the wind", indecisive leader?  That, indeed, might be a "catastrophic victory."