McCain and Iraq

Charles Krauthammer wrote an excellent article entitled What Obama's Been Missing in Iraq. It challenges Senator McCain to run his campaign based on Iraq. The reason for this is simple, the U.S. is winning and Senator McCain's call for a strategy change is one of the main reasons why. The crux of the article addresses the numerous signs of success that main stream media has essentially ignored...

4. Maliki flew to Mosul, directing a joint Iraqi-U.S. offensive against the last redoubt of al-Qaeda, which had already been driven out of Anbar, Baghdad and Diyala provinces.

5. The Iraqi parliament enacted a de-Baathification law, a major Democratic benchmark for political reconciliation.

6. Parliament also passed the other reconciliation benchmarks -- a pension law, an amnesty law, and a provincial elections and powers law. Oil revenues are being distributed to the provinces through the annual budget.

7. With Maliki having demonstrated that he would fight not just Sunni insurgents (e.g., in Mosul) but Shiite militias (e.g., the Mahdi Army), the Sunni parliamentary bloc began negotiations to join the Shiite-led government. (The final sticking point is a squabble over a sixth Cabinet position.)

Krauthammer points to both military and political success. When Democrats began to acknowledge signs of military success they continued to say the political success was impossible. Now that significant military and political progress is being made, their argument is the cost of war. They have been left with little to support their position of rapid withdrawal. On the other hand, Senator McCain has been repeatedly proven right. Krauthammer requests that Senator McCain take his argument to the people. Explain what is happening in Iraq, and explain why his position is so much stronger than the Democrats.

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What Obama's Been Missing in Iraq.