Reid: US Now Winning Iraq War That Seemed Lost
Yes, you read that headline right. What I haven’t told you is that the Reid I’m refering to is the AP’s Robert H. Reid. Surely, you didn’t think I was talking about Sen. Reid. Anyways, here’s what Robert Reid is reporting:
The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost.
Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace, a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.
Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.
That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had. The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy.
In other words, the Surge has worked, something that Barack Obama is loathe to admit. In fact, as Sen. McCain pointed out here, Sen. Obama voted to prevent the Surge. After voting to prevent the Surge, he said that the Surge was making things worse in Iraq.
What’s worse for Sen. Obama, this Rasmussen report poll says that Americans don’t care about the Obamessiah’s trip:
While Barack Obama has touted his travel to Afghanistan and Iraq as a “fact-finding” trip, 63% of Americans do not believe it makes the Democratic candidate any more qualified to be president.
A new Rasmussen Reports national survey, taken Monday night, also finds that less than a third (32%) think Obama will learn from his trip to Iraq. Forty percent (40%) say his mind is already made up about policies to deal with the war there. The Democrat has been accused by liberals in his party of softening his long-standing opposition to the war in Iraq in an effort to appeal to more moderate voters.
I said that the Agenda Media and Europeans gathered to worship at the altar of Obama. I didn’t think that his trip was selling with blue collar workers in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio. This poll suggests that this trip won’t benefit the Obamessiah as much as the media has suggested.
The other thing that this poll suggests is that people have noticed that Sen. Obama makes up his mind first, then does his factfinding. It seems to me that Sen. McCain can exploit this, even painting Sen. Obama as the anti-war left’s puppet.
People are saying that this has been a good week for Sen. Obama. I’d suggest that the pictures have been great but the AP’s article and Rasmussen’s polling has slammed the Obama campaign back into reality.
Technorati Tags: Obama, Obamessiah, Europe, Iraq, Surge, Polling, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog