It’s official. There will be no more argument from the Democrats about the success of the troop surge. Their plan is to bury their error in judgment in a larger fabricated argument about American hegemony. Not only is Barack Obama acknowledging progress in Iraq–he’s now pleased with it. And he let Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari know as much when the two spoke by telephone earlier today. However if you’re a Democrat, a smidgen of U.S.-praise must come with a heaping pile of “but.” Here’s Obama on his talk with Zebari:
I emphasized to him how encouraged I was by the reductions in violence in Iraq but also insisted that it is important for us to begin the process of withdrawing U.S. troops, making it clear that we have no interest in permanent bases in Iraq.
Why? Why does Obama — without delving into the regional ramifications — want to make it clear to Iraq, its neighbors, and terrorists laying in wait that “we have no interest in permanent bases”? This is not necessarily to say that we do have such interests or that we should. But it’s certainly a question that demands a more nuanced approach than the one the Democratic nominee has fashioned into a cuddly soundbite. Obama was hasty (and wrong) about the need to send more troops into Iraq in 2007. You’d think the knee-jerk inclination to apologize for American force would have been tamped down by some humility. But once again, he’s arguing against the judicious implementation of U.S. troops.
Moreover, it’s not yet clear where Iraq and the U.S. stand relative to one another in the status of forces discussion. Someone might want to let Obama know that there are compromises between immediate withdrawal and a permanent U.S. presence, and that U.S.-Iraq negotiations on this point are underway. Having lost the surge debate, the Democrats are grasping at straws. If Obama can shave an hour off a proposed drawdown plan, he’ll do it and say he’s halting a Republican scheme for global military domination. The Democrats were wrong on the surge, but their arguments deserved a fair hearing. We were, after all, in the midst of a punishing war that looked like it could only end disastrously. But if they continue to adopt a default anti-military stance at every last turn, they will start to look very silly indeed.