Obama grilled on whether "surge" cut Iraq violence
By JoAnne Allen
1 hour, 58 minutes ago
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was pinned down on Tuesday on whether he credits an increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq -- known as the "surge" -- for helping stabilize the country.

Obama was asked repeatedly on "CBS Evening News" whether the surge has worked.

He explained why he would still oppose a troop increase in Iraq, saying it does not meet the long-term U.S. strategic goal and that the emphasis on Iraq had taken a toll on the U.S. effort in Afghanistan.

"If we have shifted away from the central front of terrorism as a consequence of enormous and continuing investments in Iraq, then that's a poor strategic choice," the Illinois senator continued.

Pressed once more on whether he gives the surge any credit for reducing violence in Iraq, Obama said he did, as one factor of many.

""No, no of course I have," he said. "There is no doubt that the extraordinary work of our U.S. forces has contributed to a lessening of the violence, just as making sure that the Sadr militia stood down or the fact that the Sunni tribes decided to flip and work with us instead of with al-Qaeda -- something that we hadn't anticipated happening. All those things have contributed to a reduction in violence."

On the campaign trail, Republican John McCain once again rebuked Obama for his opposition to the surge.

"When we adopted the surge, we were losing the war in Iraq, and I stood up and said I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war," McCain said in New Hampshire.

In a separate CBS interview, the Arizona senator hammered home the point.

"Sen. Obama said the surge would fail. He said that it couldn't succeed. He was wrong," McCain said. "He said he still doesn't agree that the surge has succeeded now that everybody knows that it has succeeded."

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Oh no, just today John Kerry said the success of the 'surge' was all because of the New Iraqi Army.
www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=734993

Lou Dobbs has been giving Obama holy hell the past two nights on CNN, regarding this issue, as well as others.

I think Obama's popularity has peaked. The only place he has to go from here is down. He is clearly wrong on Iraq. And he is equally wrong on the energy issue. Yet he simply refuses to accept the obvious.

It seems to me that suddenly there are some cracks in the "messiah's" armor.

I saw Bernie Goldberg on O'Reilly and he said nobody is going to give a shit about how Obama answers questions, the Iraq trip is all about imagery and that's what lots of people judge by. Considering the types of people who support Obama, I believe it.

He thinks Obama's poll numbers will go up from the trip, O'Reilly thinks they'll go down a bit.

does anybody else have a problem with this?

"When we adopted the surge, we were losing the war in Iraq, and I stood up and said I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war," McCain said in New Hampshire.

I think he is hyping the problem in Iraq at the time in order to boost his own contribution.


I don't think we were losing. The troops were kicking ass everywhere. The problem was that the Iragi gov was not getting their ducks lined up politically.

Quoted: Lou Dobbs has been giving Obama holy hell the past two nights on CNN, regarding this issue, as well as others. I think Obama's popularity has peaked. The only place he has to go from here is down. He is clearly wrong on Iraq. And he is equally wrong on the energy issue. Yet he simply refuses to accept the obvious. It seems to me that suddenly there are some cracks in the "messiah's" armor.

I've been thinking this for awhile. It looks like he might be peaking. He's likely just about won over as many people as he can, now he has to try and hold his coalition together.

well if there is one thing the americain media loves its tearing down sombody who seems on top of the world

Quoted: well if there is one thing the americain media loves its tearing down sombody who seems on top of the world

Not likely, seeing as they are the ones who put him up there.  Notice how much news time McCain has been getting lately?  I didn't either

Quoted: well if there is one thing the americain media loves its tearing down sombody who seems on top of the world

How's that crack?  He is a creation of the media.

Barack Obama is an empty suit.

His charisma/personality/image/whatever may get him some/alot of votes, but when it comes to substance he is severely lacking.  Once the debates with McCain start, he is gonna get shredded. I just hope enough conscientious American voters are paying attention.

I ain't saying McCain is the best choice we could've had, but he's light years ahead of Obama.

Quoted: Lou Dobbs has been giving Obama holy hell the past two nights on CNN, regarding this issue, as well as others. I think Obama's popularity has peaked. The only place he has to go from here is down. He is clearly wrong on Iraq. And he is equally wrong on the energy issue. Yet he simply refuses to accept the obvious. It seems to me that suddenly there are some cracks in the "messiah's" armor.

He's just not going to concede that he is ever wrong about anything. Messes with the messiah complex to admit you are fallible.