To be fair, it wasn't guaranteed that the surge would work in the first place, so Obama's opposition to it was reasonable at the time. However he was wrong, like all political leaders sometimes. Hell, even President Bush was wrong about reasons why Iraq was invaded in the first place.
Whoa, the trifecta!rodney_g_gravesSeptember 9 2008, 05:01:22 UTC
1. The "Surge" was a change in troop levels, tactics, and operational level planning. Covert was but one part of the change, as were new intelligence tools (both collection and analysis), and cooperation with both Iraqi Government forces and tribal paramilitary forces.
2. The "Awakening" was not going to propagate absent a perceived commitment on the part of the United States to stay until the job was done.
3. The United States just set an all time record for defeating an insurgency.
Once you're clear on those three points, feel free to make your case that the resumption of hostilities against Iraq is illegal.
Well, since the Surge worked can we go home now? ;-)
Seriously, I'm glad it did work. Since we'd been floundering about for 5 years or so, it didn't look promising at the time. Also as noted by Bing West (not exactly a flaming liberal) in part led to our success was not just the additional troops but putting Petraeus in command, and his change of strategy.
Force Levels have been being reducedrodney_g_gravesSeptember 9 2008, 04:31:29 UTC
Since July.
I believe we'll be back to pre-surge levels by the end of this month.
Beyond that, it's as circumstances dictate. Any schedule congruent with or quicker than the United States experience in the Philippines seems reasonable to this student of history.
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2. The "Awakening" was not going to propagate absent a perceived commitment on the part of the United States to stay until the job was done.
3. The United States just set an all time record for defeating an insurgency.
Once you're clear on those three points, feel free to make your case that the resumption of hostilities against Iraq is illegal.
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As regards the resumption of hostilities against Iraq:
1. Iraq repeated abrogated the terms of the Cease Fire.
2. The causes for war, as specified by the AUMF
Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq ( ... )
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Seriously, I'm glad it did work. Since we'd been floundering about for 5 years or so, it didn't look promising at the time. Also as noted by Bing West (not exactly a flaming liberal) in part led to our success was not just the additional troops but putting Petraeus in command, and his change of strategy.
So can we at least pencil in a date to pull out?
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I believe we'll be back to pre-surge levels by the end of this month.
Beyond that, it's as circumstances dictate. Any schedule congruent with or quicker than the United States experience in the Philippines seems reasonable to this student of history.
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