Redstate

Posted at 3:00pm on May 29, 2008 Obama May Visit Iraq, On One Condition

He Would Go to Ensure Defeat

By Mark I

The Obama campaign continues flailing around wildly when challenged on Sen. Obama's lack of foreign policy chops. Last week, Obama flipped and flopped over the issue of his pledge to meet with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, telling one audience that he would let Chavez set the agenda for such a meeting, and another that Venezuela should be internationally isolated.

This week, he is trying to "clarify" his promise to meet face to face, without pre-conditions, with the leader of Iran. Even the New York Times recognized the desperation with which the Obama campaign is trying to back off from the candidate's naive views on meeting with America's enemies.

Now Sen. Obama is under fire from Sen. John McCain for not having been to Iraq in over two years. McCain challenged Obama to go to Iraq and see the difference that the troop surge has made in that time. McCain even offered to go with Obama to show him around. The Obama campaign first dismissed the call as a "political stunt." But now it has decided that Obama may indeed go to Iraq, just not to see how American and Iraqi troops are winning the war. Obama wants to go to figure out how to withdraw.

This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Obama campaign Communications Director Robert Gibbs said the following when asked if Obama would consider going to Iraq.

"Well, as he said yesterday Mika, it's under discussion about going overseas and going to Iraq sometime between now and the campaign. You know, I don't think we'll be taking that trip with John McCain because as Senator Obama said yesterday, the work that the men and women in our military are doing over there is just far too important for them to be props in some sort of political stunt or photo-op. You know, what they're doing over there is separated from their families, giving for their country. It's truly, truly amazing, and I think we would want to go over there and talk to them and see what sort of difficulties they're facing and see how it is that we can begin to carefully remove them and carefully bring them back to their families and bring them back to the United States."

The Obama campaign won't go to see how the U.S. is winning because that would constitute using the troops as "props" in a "political stunt" and "photo-op." But going over to find out the "difficulties" they are having and to figure out how to "begin to carefully remove them" is not? Nonsense.

The real story here is that Obama has no interest in what is really happening in Iraq, unless it fits his predetermined view that the war is lost. The message from the Obama campaign is clear. Sen. Obama would meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez without pre-conditions and without pre-judging the agenda items, but he won't go meet with the troops in Iraq unless it is on his terms. He would go to make sure America lost if it would help him win.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Foreign Policy Inexperience | Hugo Chavez | Iraq | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad | Obamafiles — Comments (58)/ Email this page » / Read More »