Obama hopped a plane- what's the big deal?

Obama finally took John McCain's advice and hopped a plane to Iraq and Afghanistan. But did it make the Republicans happy that he did? Nope.

A couple of McCain surrogates popped off on cue. Joe Lieberman:

"If Barack Obama's policy in Iraq had been implemented, he couldn't be in Iraq today," Lieberman said, adding that Obama "was prepared to accept retreat and defeat."

Rudy Giuliani with John McCain at a baseball game:

"It's turned out that if we had caved in the way Barack Obama and the Democrats do, we'd now have a defeat," the former New York City mayor said. "America would have a defeat rather than a possible victory. And I think the fact that Barack Obama is kind of making his first tour, in essence, of the world, gives you an indication that John McCain is the man with the experience."

Hmm. I think that somebody was handing out cue cards with "OBAMA=DEFEAT" on them.

During the Obama Iraq visit, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appeared to back Obama's call for a 16-month timetable in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel over the weekend. An Iraqi government spokesman said Saturday that the prime minister's comments to Der Spiegel had been "misunderstood" and "mistranslated." The White House said al-Maliki has made clear that any withdrawals would be conditioned on "continuing positive developments." But in a brief statement Sunday, the magazine said it "stands by its version of this interview."

Look, if Obama is being accused of seizing the fruits of Republican toughness and determination, then let the Republicans go ahead and claim the fruits first. Oh no, can't do that, we need to still hold the Iraqi's hands, until we bring a few soldiers home for our October surprise because McCain needs an electoral boost.   Can't bring the troops home now, because improving conditions on the ground are a great reason to keep them there as a counterweight to Iran. Obama lacks experience, hmm. George W. Bush lacked experience, perspective, good judgement, a sense of humor, any interest in bridging the partisan divide, and the basic honesty of admitting to the american people what our intelligence system did not know about Iraq. Did that bother any of you back in the day? No? Then stop whining about Obama now.

I understand that what's done is done. We can't get the 4000+ lives back, undo the 20,000 cripples, put back the trillion dollars borrowed from China because we had to lower taxes in wartime. I'm okay with that, really. Why aren't you guys okay with saying goodbye to all that, it was your idea! You seem to have the idea that if we manage to stay in Iraq until it becomes a carbon copy of the USA, all  the sacrifices will not be in vain and we can then have a victory dance. It does not work that way. We have to leave someday. Maybe we can leave a minimal strike force of 5 or 10 thousand guys to hunt Al Qaeda cells in the desert and keep the Iranians nervous, but if the Iraqis do not want that, how can we stay in defiance of their wishes? Do you forget that this war was supposed to liberate them? We are not in a position to dictate terms, we are only in a position to negotiate and make requests.

What we do about Afghanistan is the next question. The fight against the Taliban, which was the original sequel to 9/11 and which was interrupted by a long detour through Iraq, is back on. We could try to undo the detour by excalating the fighting in Afghanistan by sending in many thousands of soldiers, but it is not entirely clear that the solution lies there. Read up on Afghanistan. We need to figure out what to do there. It should be noted that the key development in Iraq was not the surge. The key development was the creation of the Sons of Iraq, or the Awakening, or whatever you choose to call the armed Sunni groups that decided to stop killing Americans and start killing Al Qaeda. That's what we want in Afghanistan, but it is very unclear how to get there.  The problem in Afghanistan is partly the presence of the Taliban kill squads crossing over from havens in Pakistan that the Pakistani government is no longer interested in combatting. But another problem is that Afghanistan's rural areas have not seen the rule of law or institutions of civil authority. We chased out the Taliban, shook hands with a few warlords, installed Karzai, and flew to Iraq. Its a mess.

Victory is not when you kill more "bad guys" than they kill of you. No, victory is when the shooting stops.