Barack Obama And His Perfect Storm Of Peace In Iraq :: Carter's Second Term

Senator Barack Obama and Terry Moran of ABC News - "I've always reserved the right, uh, to say---let's say that ethnic, uh, ethnic fighting broke out once again---I've reserved the right to say---I don't--I'm not going to stand idly by if genocide is occurring.”, said Barack Obama. Image Credit: ABC News via my.barackobama.com

Barack Obama And His Perfect Storm Of Peace In Iraq

In an interview with ABC’s Terry Moran for Nightline (July 21, 2008), Barack Obama showed why he really isn’t ready for “Primetime” let alone “Nightline”.

Junior Senator Barack Obama will not say he was wrong about his assessment of the Bush Administration’s implementation of the military operation that has become known as “The Surge”. This is the operation where an additional 30,000 or so United States soldiers were placed in Iraq in order to stop the strengthening growth of anti-Iraq insurgent (Al Qaeda) combatants and provide security for the newly elected government of Iraq to begin to operate.

Eighteen months ago, it was estimated that there were 12,000 armed combatants working throughout the country to disrupt the newly formed government of Iraq. Today, the estimate is that there may be 1,200 armed combatants holed up in the western provinces of Iraq. One year ago in June 2007, we lost over seventy soldiers to violence and IED roadside bombs throughout Iraq … June 2008 saw that number drop to five.

Moran noted that Obama had claimed that the surge "would not make a significant dent in the violence."

Barack Obama insists that the reason the violence is down in Iraq is due to a convergence of factors that he could not anticipate happening … OH, and some “terrific work by our troops”.

The Perfect Storm of factors the junior Senator sites are disturbing ---

“… but the Sunni awakening in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decided that they had had enough with Al Qaeda, in the Shii’a community the militias standing down to some degrees. So what you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, I think that my assessment would have been correct.”

Sorry Barack, the Sunni tribal leaders could not have “had enough” and say so if the additional 30,000 troops were not on the ground to provide security and combative strength. The Shii’a community mailtias would not have stood down if there wasn’t a very capable and ready force (bolstered by 30,000 United States military troops on the ground) aligned against their violent power grabbing agenda.

Further, Barack Obama had this to say as it relates to what HE would do if he were President and the military was pulled out of Iraq … and the violence began to increase inside the country ---

"But," asked Moran,"if the country had pursued your policy of withdrawing in the face of this horrific violence, what do you think Iraq would look like now?"

Obama said it would be hard to speculate. "The Sunnis might have made the same decisions at that time. The Shii’as might have made some similar decisions based on political calculation. There was ethnic cleansing in Baghdad that actually took the violence level down," he said.

Obama also told Moran that there were circumstances under which he could revise his instruction to U.S. generals to begin withdrawing combat brigades at the pace of one-to-two per month.

"I've always reserved the right, uh, to say---let's say that ethnic, uh, ethnic fighting broke out once again---I've reserved the right to say---I don't--I'm not going to stand idly by if genocide is occurring. I'm not going to stand idly by if vital United States interests are at stake. Um, so in that sense yes, I retain the flexibility anyone who in the job of commander in chief is constantly reassessing facts, risks, and so forth."

--- So, basically Barack Obama advocates that our military go back to Iraq and start a third war insde Iraq.

This scenario actually would be an insult to Jimmy Carter and the suggestion that a Barack Obama presidency would result in a second term for the Carter Administration.

Actually, a Barack Obama Administration would be of a greater failure than a Carter’s Second Term.

By the way, the "Surge" has ended.