Obama presents a real threat to the USA.Jun 8th, 2008 - 00:21:36

Obama “Pretends” on Iraq
Peter Wehner -

Senator Obama’s speech on Tuesday in St. Paul, when he finally locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, was typical: rhetorically powerful, well-delivered, with some clever and well-constructed lines. But when you examine the substance of what he said, the speech breaks down. Some of his claims are questionable and misleading; others are ill-informed; and still others border on being intellectually dishonest. Obama’s statement on Iraq are particularly revealing.

According to Obama:

I won’t stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq.

In fact, Obama doesn’t have to “pretend” there are many good options left in Iraq. There is one obvious good option: to continue policies that are manifestly succeeding and qualify as one of the most impressive military turnabouts in our history. According to yesterday’s operational update by Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner,

...Security incidents in Iraq are at the lowest levels in four years. These numbers reflect fewer attacks on Iraqi civilians, fewer attacks on Iraqi and Coalition Forces, and fewer attacks on the Government’s infrastructure. These security gains follow the coordinated offensive operations over the past year, and the recent security operations in Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra.

The security progress we’ve making is now translating into encouraging progress on the political and economic fronts as well. There is no question, then, that Iraq, which remains in many ways a broken and splintered country, has made enormous strides. It is virtually beyond dispute that the “surge” strategy endorsed by President Bush (and opposed by Senator Obama) is working, and working better and faster than anyone could have imagined just a year ago.

In his speech Obama also stated:

We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in - but start leaving we must.

Keep in mind that in his February 2007 speech announcing his bid for the presidency, Obama declared, “It’s time to start bringing our troops home. That’s why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008.” In May, Obama voted against funding for combat operations. And in September, a mere three months after the final elements of the 30,000-strong surge forces had landed in Iraq, he declared that the moment had arrived to remove all of our combat troops “immediately.” “Not in six months or one year–now.”

Obama’s position, then, is the embodiment of carelessness in “getting out of Iraq,” and if he had his way, the progress we have seen would not have come to pass and Iraq would almost certainly be in a death spiral rather than on the (long and difficult) road to recovery.

As for Obama’s statement that “start leaving we must”: perhaps Obama is unaware that when he testified before the Congress two months ago, General Petraeus announced that he was recommending that we withdraw five brigade combat teams (more than a quarter of our total number of combat troops) from Iraq - or that this week, the fourth of five Brigade Combat Teams are returning home, including two Marine battalions and a Marine Expeditionary Unit which have already returned home.

Senator Obama also said this on Tuesday:

It’s time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future.

Perhaps Senator Obama is unaware of that, in the words of the New York Times (from May 12), “Basra has been transformed by its own surge . . . forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have largely quieted the city, to the initial surprise and growing delight of many inhabitants who only a month ago shuddered under deadly clashes between Iraqi troops and Shiite militia.” The principal factor for the success we’ve seen in Basra is the deployment of 33,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces. And while we shared intelligence, helped the Iraqis in planning the operation and provided overhead reconnaissance, it was “totally Iraq planned, led and executed,” according to the U.S. military.

Perhaps Senator Obama is unaware, too, of the progress that’s been made in Sadr City. On May 21 the New York Times put it this way:

Iraqi forces rolled unopposed through the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City on Tuesday, a dramatic turnaround from the bitter fighting that has plagued the Baghdad neighborhood for two months, and a qualified success for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. As it did in the southern city of Basra last month, the Iraqi government advanced its goal of establishing sovereignty and curtailing the powers of the militia.

It’s also likely, I suppose, that Senator Obama is unaware of the progress that’s being made in Mosul, the last urban bastion of al Qaeda in Iraq. According to the Times

The recent successes in quieting violence in Basra and Sadr City appear to be stretching to the long-rebellious Sunni Arab district here in Mosul, raising hopes that the Iraqi Army may soon have tenuous control over all three of Iraq’s major cities.

Senator Obama also appears to be wholly unaware of the political reconciliation and legislative progress we’ve seen in recent months, including the Iraqi parliament passing key laws having to do with provincial elections, the distribution of resources, amnesty, pensions, investment, and de-Ba’athification.

Also in his speech, Senator Obama said:

It’s time to refocus our efforts on al Qaeda’s leadership

Perhaps during his busy campaigning Obama isn’t aware of the fact that al Qaeda is in the process of losing the hearts and minds of the Islamic and Arab world. Beginning late last year key figures in the jihadist movement–including Sheikh Abd Al-‘Aziz bin Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia; Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, an influential Saudi cleric whom bin Laden once lionized; and Sayyid Imam al-Sharif (”Dr. Fadl”), once a mentor to Ayman al-Zawahiri and a legend within the global jihadist movement– turned against al Qaeda and their brutal tactics.

In addition, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, in a meeting with the Washington Post last week, portrayed al Qaeda as badly weakened in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive in much of the rest of the world. Al Qaeda’s core leadership has been destabilized and it has lost its ability to exploit the Iraq war to recruit adherents. “You are not going to hear me say that al Qaeda is defeated,” the ever-cautious U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said on Saturday, “but they’ve never been closer to defeat than they are now.”

We know, too, that according to a report from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, “large and growing numbers of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere [are] rejecting Islamic extremism.” We are also seeing large drops in support for Osama bin Laden.

The idea that we would hurt al Qaeda by losing in Iraq, which would be the outcome of Obama’s policy, is profoundly confused and, if it were to be implemented, terribly dangerous.

Abridged

commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/wehner/9931

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Obama's dirty backers/friends.Jun 8th, 2008 - 00:22:59

The Art of Ostracism [Victor Davis Hanson]

There are two disturbing—and now predictable—patterns to Obama's serial distancing from prior intimates. First, the post facto embarrassment is personalized in terms of 'I' and 'me,' as if a Wright or Rezko is somehow doing something out of character aimed at Obama, rather than persisting in entirely predictable behavior that offends society at large. Thus in reaction to the racist Wright, we get 'That's a show of disrespect to me,' while Pfleger's venom prompts, 'I am deeply disappointed in Father's Pfleger.' But the issue is racial hatred, not a matter of pleasing or respecting Obama himself.

The second reaction is a sort of amnesia: So suddenly the past benefactor Rezo has radically changed with his indictment: 'That isn't the Tony Rezko I knew'. And after Rev. Wright himself confirmed that his hatred once labeled as 'snippets' and 'loops' was, in fact, representative of his world view, Obama pivoted with 'Well, I may not know him as well as I thought.'

The truth?

Obama has required a vocabulary of needed ostracism, as he insidiously sheds most of his prior life and environment of the last twenty years. Wright, Moss, Pfleger, Ayers, Rezo, etc. are all figures that have to be 'disavowed' or, better, Trostkyized in some fashion. The method apparently is to suggest that they, not Obama, have suddenly changed (when, in truth, they, not Obama, have remained entirely consistent) and are now out to hurt or embarrass Obama (when, again, they are surprised that their longtime predictable behavior is suddenly producing different results).

Like many of his prior positions on the Middle East, Iran, guns, abortion, taxes, the war, etc. Obama must metamorphosize from a hard-core Chicago racial leftwing activist, into a liberal idealist who transcends politics.

Will it work? Two things are in his favor. One, his message is messianic ('this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal'), and the devoted not only don't want to know of their prophet's mortal lapses, but like all devotees will turn in anger on those who remind them of such mortality. Second, many of these bombs have been exploded in the primaries, months before the election. Even in Chicago, there are only so many Rezkos and Wrights.

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tonny from belgiumJun 8th, 2008 - 13:59:17

I see the lunatic poster is back ,hoping that some of the mud he throws will stick.A remnnant of the smear campaign tactics that was used against Edwards most succesfuly with the siftboat campaign .Now we are facing an attack against obama ,equating him with islam terrorism and of course embezzlement .What a vile tactics,what a gross insult to the principles of democracy .With nothing positive to defend go for the smear campaign ,as ridiculous as possible .
This is the best way of killing democracy .
Can we hope that some day the american electorate will grow weary of this kind of politics and focus on those matters that are real ,like the poor state of health care,even for those that have access to it,the sorry state of education,the terible loss of prestige your country has suffered worldwide as the result of the invasion of Iraq on false reasons and a lot more .
Of course none of the above smear holds any reality in it ,it is meant only to distract you from the real issues.

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SP4: TonnyJun 8th, 2008 - 14:33:56

Edwards, to my knowledge, was never on a swift boat. Kerry was, or purported to be. He also claimed to have witnessed atrocities he never witnessed, etc.

We see this all the time in politics, a myth perpetrated to get from point A to point B. The Clintons were the gold standard for this lying as SOP i.e. Bill riding on de-segregated buses in Little Rock, or Hirrary's landing in KKosovo under sniper fire, and of course Bill never having sex with that girl (which one?!)

Unfortnately, the Internet makes lying, in public, almost impossible because, like Bill Clinton found out someone always has a vid cam and you can replay it over, and over and over.

Obama has a record, abeit a limited one, and has some glaring inconsistancies (Tony'the knife'Rezko, connections to Big Coal)and folks are going to have conversations about them. He was spared this in the gossamer world of dem libnazi politics, a simple popularity contest about race and gender, but now he is going to have to defend the real meat of his candidacy.

He is very bright and makes good moves. He is running against a type of candidate who never really does very well in these types of campaigns so I give him a 2 out of 3 chance. It is his to lose.

Relax, Tonny, this will take some time.

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truconserveJun 8th, 2008 - 15:49:41

I have no doubt that during the next several months the desperate neocon artists will become even more rabid in their venomous attacks on everyone opposed to their disasterous foreign policies. Their main focus is to instill
fear, and perpetrate paranoia, in hope to delude Americans into continuing to support them. They preach the paranoia of 'don't you know what will happen' if we change directions, etc. Their strategy of throwing everything into Iraq reminds me of the duck and cover days in the early 1960's. The politians pretend to protect us with strategy that simply does not work.
It would be very unwise for them to underestimate the level of dissatifaction among real Americans, resulting from the past years of neocon lies, deceptions, delusions, and the failure to keep on tract with the pursuit of osama bin laden and al qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, wisdom is an attribute that most all neocons surely lack.
They can only resort to visceral, verbal attacks of those who question their ill-conceived, mis directed, and failed strategy of imperial conquest and transformation of the midddle east. The poster above scornfully mentions 'liberal idealism' when in fact the necons are the creators of a bizzare, idealistic dream toward the middle east. We will never defeat al aqaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan by occupying Iraq. But the neocons who peverted our mission after 9/11 want you to believe that we can. By only idealistically relying upon a faulty, condenscendingly arrogant belief system of conquest, the neoconanderthals have proven that they are not progmatic or even able to think their way out of a paper bag.

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SP4: AnswerJun 8th, 2008 - 16:31:37

I have no doubt that during the next several months the desperate neocon artists will become even more rabid in their venomous attacks on everyone opposed to their disasterous foreign policies.


sp4 - Take a look, dickhead, the GOP has a moderate so moderate he once wanted to join the Dem Caucus


Their main focus is to instill
fear, and perpetrate paranoia, in hope to delude Americans into continuing to support them.


sp4 see above, bonehead

They preach the paranoia of 'don't you know what will happen' if we change directions, etc.

sp4 - on the contrary, we know EXACTLY what will happen

Their strategy of throwing everything into Iraq reminds me of the duck and cover days in the early 1960's.

sp4 - nonsense: we have it distributed in numerous places

The politians pretend to protect us with strategy that simply does not work.

sp4 - even Nancy pelosi conceded we are winning in Iraq. that sorta takes the sail outa that lie!

It would be very unwise for them to underestimate the level of dissatifaction among real Americans, resulting from the past years of neocon lies, deceptions, delusions, and the failure to keep on tract with the pursuit of osama bin laden and al qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

sp4 - that's why they greenlighted Bush TWICE!

However, wisdom is an attribute that most all neocons surely lack.

sp4 - TWICE

They can only resort to visceral, verbal attacks of those who question their ill-conceived, mis directed, and failed strategy of imperial conquest and transformation of the midddle east.

sp4 - ...even NANCY PELOSI

The poster above scornfully mentions 'liberal idealism' when in fact the necons are the creators of a bizzare, idealistic dream toward the middle east.

sp4 - '..we MUST deal with Saddam!' - Hillary Rodham Clinton.

We will never defeat al aqaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan by occupying Iraq.

sp4 - no, we HAVE defeated them in IRAQ!

But the neocons who peverted our mission after 9/11 want you to believe that we can.

sp4 - we HAVE!

By only idealistically relying upon a faulty, condenscendingly arrogant belief system of conquest, the neoconanderthals have proven that they are not progmatic or even able to think their way out of a paper bag.

sp4 - Nancy Pelosi...we are winning...

Go Inform yourself. It will require you leaving Mom's basement, but you can still wear the tinfoil hat...

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SP4: 'Heloo?'Jun 8th, 2008 - 16:50:11

'yess...this is th presidint...oh!...good afternoon senatah Clinton...nooo.....everthin's je fahne...married foff m' daughtah....no more drinkin and carryin on....at least fer noow....one moore t goo...well..y' knoow....been spendin tahme at crawferd...coffah with Mutha Sheehan....yeah...th secret service has t bee thire too...whin ol Dick cin't be thire with his skattah gun...'



....ah must say, that was a spirited campaihgn yoou were runnin...well..unitl yestadayah.....too bad too..y' dang near had thit colored fella corraled and branded.....Hilarah....hillarah...woman...quit y' goddam screemin ...this ain't Bill y' talkin too....jeesusah cheerahst...it's a PRAHMREEE.....sheeit....folks loose em all th tahme...well.cept me o course...stop Hilarah...thits a joke....n' settle dooown woman...'

'...listen t' me Hillarah...ah feel reel bad ya lost but...waell..y' f--ked up, strctly speakin.....haell yes!...ya shoulda dealt oout thit colored fella earlah...jes lahke ah did with ol Johnny....otherwahse I'd be a rantin on Jack Daniels in Crawferd nooow...oh yeah..., ah AM in Crawferd!....but it's still earlah....maybah latah.....thit's joke girl....'

'...s' listen up girl..ol GW is grateful fer thit war vote...took lot's guts an ya stepped up..soory bout thim WMD's...well not really......but listen!...

y' stay in th senate, peddle thit vote ta' bill's foundation doners...oh yeeah...ever one knoows aboout thit...haell...y' ain't th onlah one...thin ya' pass sum reeel pretty legislation....save th gay whales or sumpin....we cin evin git ya a gay marriage bill..well..excipt fer Crawferd....an ah'll hep ya too senatah...git ya sum o thim haghwaay funds fer New York...sum o thim cap an trades...well...if'n thim dems o yurs evah warm up t thim, heh, heh, heh...heck, ah got 6 more months an daddy's got th store opin fer ya girl..so put on thim big girl panties (damn big in yur case! heh, heh, heh) and rahde! Gotta goo noow, best ta Bill, thahnk him fer thim salmon flavored cee gars unda th desk...tell Chelsea all thit weight off her looks reeel good..an hava goood dayah!'

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shut up tonny, you embarrass yourselfJun 8th, 2008 - 19:34:16

'I see the lunatic poster is back ,hoping that some of the mud he throws will stick.'

How is it 'mud' if it is acknowledged to be the truth? Even by Obama?

'This is the best way of killing democracy .'

What do you know of democracy? You signed your sovereignty over to the EU.

'terible loss of prestige your country has suffered worldwide as the result of the invasion of Iraq on false reasons and a lot more .'

I do not know a soul who cares what a tic like you thinks about us,..

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we can't afford to lose these wars.Jun 8th, 2008 - 19:37:03

'Their main focus is to instill
fear, and perpetrate paranoia, in hope to delude Americans into continuing to support them.'

Getting together with bin laden and singing kumbaya won't work you bandwagon hopping, needy lemming.

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SP4: you're not paraniodJun 8th, 2008 - 19:42:38

...if there are people who have demonstrated that they are out to get you.

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