Former Clinton White House Counsel Lanny Davis, who now is a political contributor to Fox News, wrote a surprising commentary recently admitting that the Bush surge in Iraq is working.
In the commentary Davis recalled seeing an older woman holding up her purple finger, after voting, and smiling in the midst of carnage. The Iraqi voters had their fingers dyed purple to indicate that they had voted.
Davis’ reaction was “Wow, I thought. Is it possible I was wrong?” And he actually voiced the Bush Neo-Con doctrine about the war in Iraq, “Maybe another democracy, however imperfect, other than Israel in the Middle East could lead to more moderation, possibly other democracies? Democracies that could serve as bulwarks against Al Qaeda-type of terrorist states?”
Finally Davis stated that “The surge did, in fact, lead to a reduction of violence, confirmed by media on the ground as well as our military leaders.”
How will the Democrats react to Davis’ commentary? It is clear that the surge IS working. But what does that mean? This war is not popular. We want out of Iraq – and the Iraqi government wants us out too. There is little doubt that we will be out, perhaps by 2010, regardless of which presidential nominee wins. But will history look back at this misguided war kindly? Will the Bush legacy actually be restored?
Will American voters reward John McCain for being a Bush loyalist on the war, or Barack Obama for steadfastly opposing it?
And has working for Fox News given Davis a more conservative outlook? He has never sounded like this before!
I don’t think anybody has denied that the surge has lowered violence. (Well, except for experts like Juan Cole here if you want to read the non-spin version from somebody who really knows the area http://www.truthout.org/article/obama-iraq )
And I sure don’t care what a scumbag hack like Lanny Davis says to please his new bosses at Fox News.
But it’s such a moot question. Whether the surge succeeded or not depends on how you define success, and all of us would like to see the violence go down. On the two most important questions, Obama is right – it’s time for us to get out of Iraq, our troops have done their job, they WON, and the Iraqis don’t want us there any more.
Oh yeah the second question we’re right on. This war wasn’t worth it and should never have happened, and there needs to be justice for the people who dragged our nation through this travesty.
Yay for the surge though.
The truth of the matter is that the “surge” has worked in many ways. The fact that it has just proves that Bush, Cheney and Rummy screwed the plans up in the beginning believing they could be successful with lower troop levels.
We should have never been in Iraq in the first place, however once the “crazies” decided to invade they should have made sure we had adequate troop levels involved.
The “surge” proves that they were wrong about that too.
At least give them credit for doing something right. You guys can’t even allow for one moment that even one plan worked out for all our benefit. Nice.
The cartoon is funny and it’s the truth. Tough being run over by the truth isn’t it?
Hey me and Sean both admitted that the surge lowered violence at least.
And I don’t feel run over by that fact. I’m glad and it’s time to leave.
“Tough being run over by the truth isn’t it?”
The truth is Carl that your right-wing friends screwed this whole thing up to begin with and we as a nation are worse off because of their blunders. When will you admit that?
And please explain how anything connected to this conservative led debacle “worked out for all our benefit”. How have you benefitted? How have I?
“we as a nation are worse off because of their blunders. When will you admit that? ”
We are?
cook
To the tune of almost $750,000,000 a day let alone the numbers of lives lost.
Does anyone know the standard that’s being used to measure the drop in violence… should we assume they are nearing pre-invasion levels?
“We are?”
Cook,
Would you please explain how the nation has benefitted from this exercise in stupidity concocted by a bunch of crazy conservative loons?
With many young people in the armed forces and not the unemployment lines.
Good union paychecks to the employees of the military equipment makers.
Heck war profits built Orange County.
Grotesque, Cook, grotesque. And nonsensical.
Nobody joined the armed forces to fight in Iraq. Recruitment numbers have plummeted since the stoopid war started, and probably won’t go back up for a long time.
4300 dead. (lowball) 40,000 wounded. That’s paralyzed, burned, missing limbs, blinded, brain-damaged. People who would have died back in Nam.
And since you’re trying to take the economic view… THREE TRILLION DOLLARS that our kids and grandkids will be paying off on interest, caring for the wounded vets, and all the PTSD ones who will be on the street for decades like your Nam buddies who didn’t fare quite so well as you…
gas prices through the roof…
What will it take Cook? I know you’re a military guy but you also seem like a prickly nonconformist with a good brain… what will it take for you to admit that THIS particular unnecessary war SUCKED, and sucked ASS?