The sudden policy shift by Barack Obama yesterday in Fargo, ND, making it clear to observers that he was wrong about his specific insistence on precipitous withdraw from Iraq, should prove to be the loose thread in the fabric of Senator Obama's candidacy, and for one very basic reason. One or two good tugs on that thread and it will unravel, proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he simply had no informed judgment at all on a matter of vital national security. Obama very publicly made his bed based on ideology, not fact, and now he has found out that he had short-sheeted himself.
The silly and oft repeated claim of his that he was the one who has showed "
good judgment," was about all that the man with no experience had going for him -- other than his skill in the use of a teleprompter. Good judgment, though, is based on a measured consideration of all the evidence.
So now Barack Obama now stands before the public as perhaps the least qualified candidate for President in modern American history. Given yesterday's policy shift, the curtain is set aside, and Toto is now going to start barking at the heel of this heretofore Oz! "
Pay not attention, pay no attention . . ." the Obamanians will insist. Yet we are all paying heed! Here on Independence Day!
What really compounded the error is that he had steadfastly refused to ever consider any the evidence suggesting otherwise! His was a willing suspension of judgment. Senator Barack Obama has never been to Afghanistan -- not even once. And, he has only been to Iraq on one brief occasion -- a year and a half ago,
prior to the surge. In all of that time, he he also refused as well to meet with the American commanders on the ground, including General Petraeus. So here was this fancy lawyer who instead spat in the eye of all evidence to the contrary, remaining persistently ignorant of available information on which to make a more sober judgment . . . but who aspires to be our Commander in Chief!
Well, all politicians shift don't they? Has Senator McCain not shifted on drilling for domestic oil? Yes and yes. But Senator Obama has now blinked on his previously intentional and very theatrical effort to
undermine our public opinion on a central element of our American foreign policy, without any real consideration of the facts.
This past primary season on the Democrat side, there was a contest of campaigns with only one recurring theme, one on which his campaign emerged triumphant over the rest of the nay-sayers, the "best" of those all urging their followers to engage in a willing suspension of disbelief, or -- if you prefer Shakespeare to Coleridge - in which they entreated their followers that "
'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings" -- in this case, bad theater all, that has now begun to collapse under the weight of untruthfulness.
The play, it seems, is not the thing today. The "poetry" of the Democrat campaign is collapsing under the plain prose of a job well done by our troops in Iraq. Barack Obama and the "
surrender now" crowd were in complete denial, and suddenly they must face the music.
All along, future American lives, honor and national security were at the stake.
Judgment. It comes down to this. Had the Administration listened to, and acted on his oft-repeated insistence that we get out of Iraq immediately, that we stand down by a specific timetable, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), would have quickly declared victory over the United States, and very likely have completely dominated the ensuing bloodbath and struggle for control of at least key portions of the country, as we retreated in disgrace.
Remember, Obama said . . . no . . . he
demanded that we get out in 16 months. And he said that a year ago. Also remember this . . . he argued against and voted against the surge -- he would
not have allowed it.
That, in spite of General Michael Hayden's assertion at the time:
"I strongly believe [that U.S. failure in Iraq] would lead to al Qaeda with what it is they said is their goal there, which is the foundations of the caliphate, and in operational terms for us, a safe haven from which then to plan and conduct attacks against the West."
So, as a result of the implementation of Obama's policy, the United States would now be in a substantially weakened strategic position in the Middle East, and indeed throughout the world.
As for AQI, they could well now be in a position to begin exploiting oil revenues to finance their next enhanced phase of terrorism -- al-Qaeda on steroids -- with a steady source (about 6 billion barrels) of revenue-producing oil under their control, enough to fully fund a generation of terror and fear. No more caves for those beasts! Bring bin-Laden and Zawahiri in from the cold! And, they would be in a position to militarily threaten any remaining allies we had as well. How long before they took up Ayman al-Zawahiri's call for AQI to initiate further attacks here on our homeland?
You think disruption of the oil markets is causing higher fuel prices as it is? Imagine if we had actually listened to the Democrats . . . and an al-Qaeda nation was now facing us as a result of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Murtha,
et al., having forced our retreat?
Instead, AQI made the huge mistake of believing that they could defeat us militarily in this battle in the war on terror. They recruited huge numbers of Islamist fighters for that battle, who streamed into Iraq, and they redirected resources from Afghanistan to Iraq, only to be swept up in one of the great turn-arounds in military history -- they lost, and the entire AQI organization is now in a shambles, and scrambling for the exits.
As
recently reported in
The New Yorker by Lawrence Wright, even one of the original "
masterminds" of the al-Qaeda cause, the mysterious "
Dr. Fadl" is now daring to openly reject the underpinnings of terror as a means to their end, and he is claiming it is so
on religious grounds.
Real leaders, like Senator John McCain, showed excellent judgment when the chips were down. They pressed the Bush Administration for the implementation of the surge strategy.
Obama vehemently argued against the surge at the time, and voted against it as well.
Last July, before the success of the surge had begun to emerge in the public consciousness, John McCain stood up on the floor of the Senate in the middle of the night to defend the continuation of the surge. His campaign for the Presidency was seemingly in disarray, and yet McCain stood firmly on principle.
Here was the conclusion
to his speech (ht: Ed Morrissey at
Captain's Quarters) that hot July night, just one year ago:
