Well it's a damn good thing I'm not running for office! All my opponent would have to do is peruse this site for a few minutes and they'd have enough flip-flopping to make John Kerry look like the man of steel!
If you recall, back in June I wrote this post on the subject of the war. I was so certain, so frustrated, so defeatist, I actually typed these words:
It is TIME TO GET THE HELL OUT OF IRAQ
But I've been reading Michael Totten, and I've changed my mind. How can I not when I read things like this:
What worked in Ramadi might not work in Baghdad. The Mahdi Army's relative moderation, compared with Al Qaeda's brutality, prevents it from being rejected by the entire society. But this much cannot be denied: There are powerful winds of change in Iraq, and not enough time has passed to determine how they will transform the country.Want to know if the surge will succeed or fail? There is only one thing to do: Wait.
And let me be clear, the violence in Anbar has gone down despite the surge, not because of the surge. The inability of American soldiers to protect these tribes from al Qaeda said to these tribes we have to fight al Qaeda ourselves. It wasn't that the surge brought peace here. It was that the warlords took peace here, created a temporary peace here. And that is because there was no one else there protecting.
As JD says:
if the Anbar Awakening is evidence of a U.S. military failure--lets have more of those failures.
You know, even if things weren't going so well in Iraq with the surge, I think Schumer's words would be enough to win me back to the pro-war side! Where does that worm get off putting politics above country? Political victory over the honor of our troops? He is a disgrace.