Obama's Realism about Iraq

The nexus for the contrast between John McCain's gaga land expectations of success in Iraq and Barack Obama's adult and realistic assessment of success was Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. McCain and Obama both questioned them today during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting chaired by Delaware's own Joe Biden.

John McCain's questions centered on establishing al Qaeda's continued presence in Iraq and Iran's heavy influence within the country. The implication was that success constituted the complete elimination of any al Qaeda presence (a standard so high it almost certainly isn't true of the United States) and an Iranian involvement in Iraq's, its neighbor's, affairs that is so benign it's devoid of any self interest, again a standard not emulated by the USA's relationship with its neighbors in Canada and Mexico.

Given that paradisaical standard, it wasn't difficult for McCain to elicit the acknowledgment that the USA would, therefore, be in Iraq for many years:

At the same time, McCain was able to put both officials on record that a certain level of troops is likely to remain in Iraq for years to come. McCain has said U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 100 years, citing the half-century or longer U.S. presence in South Korea and other parts of the world where forces are based to deter conflict, not fight one.

Of course, an occupation with the potential for perpetual conflict for US combat troops is implicit the "years to come" concession. That might suit Senator McCain's martial fantasies, but the American public is decidedly more sane. They want none of it. They want the US to get out of Iraq. So it, therefore, became necessary for Sen. McCain to suggest something more akin with the will of the voting public:

"I do not want to keep our troops in Iraq a minute longer than necessary to secure our interests there. Our goal--my goal--is an Iraq that no longer needs American troops," McCain said. "And I believe we can achieve that goal, perhaps sooner than many imagine.

But when "necessary" is defined so unrealistically as to make Iraq into a nation of fantasy fiction, "a minute longer than necessary" feels like forever. Hopefully, the public will realize that "sooner than many imagine" would be unimaginable during a McCain Presidency.

But what a difference in perspective a sober-minded and intelligent person can provide. One can actually conceive of what an achievable and workable goal would look like given that the Bush administration handed to al Qaeda the key to the front door in Iraq and transformed Iran into a major influence Iraq's political and social life :



How about that? A real end game. A way to get our troops home and give back to the Iraqi people what they've been asking for repeatedly over the last few years: their nation without a US military occupation.