Friday, September 26, 2008

Good News In Iraq Is No News

Another Joe Biden gaffe comes to bite the Obama campaign - this one on the very same day. In Cincinnati, Ohio, Biden delivered a foreign policy speech. Remember that Biden was chosen as Barack Obama's running mate because he brings foreign policy knowledge and long time Congressional experience. Biden has been in Congress longer than McCain. So, when Biden was sent out to the swing state of Ohio to boost confidence in the Obama ticket, he tried to portray Obama as the better judge in matters of foreign policy. He claimed, "the surge is over, and the political reconciliation it was supposed to produce has not materialized."

The very same day, CNN broke the news that, in fact, there had indeed been "a major step toward national reconciliation." "The Iraqi Parliament in Baghdad passed a law setting guidelines for elections to select local governing bodies, Sunni legislator Salim Abdulla told CNN. The bill's passage by 191 of the 275 members of Parliament is considered a major step toward national reconciliation among Iraqi Sunni Arabs, Shiites, Kurds."

As brutal dictators like Ahmadinejad are welcomed at the U.N. and the left enjoys meetings with him, some are bragging of meetings. Take for instance, Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin. These two women are the founders of Code Pink, the vile anti-war group that protests while attired in pink costumes. They camp out in front of Walter Reed Hospital, where wounded war veterans recover from battlefield injuries, and protest the war. They attend congressional hearings and cause commotions to capture publicity. They attend political speeches to interrupt the speech and capture publicity.

They are backed by the Communist party backers in this country. And, George Soros, the favored billionaire of the Obama left. "Calling it a "major step forward" in relations between Iran and the United States, leading activists Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans of CODEPINK Women for Peace - along with more than 150 other U. S. peace group representatives - met Wednesday afternoon with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here following his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday." That from Ed Morrissey.

Turns out that Jodie Evans is a bundler for Barack Obama. Will Obama denounce this meeting? Will he return to her the amount of $50,000 she has pledged to raise for his campaign?

The Code Pink women support the government that funds Hezbollah and Hamas. The government that provides munitions to kill American and coalition troops in Iraq, and the government hell bent to build nukes to use against Israel. Code Pink suggests building peace parks. "The CODEPINK women proposed inviting American and Iranian artists to build a "peace park" in Tehran, a memorial dedicated to people-to-people commitment to peace and diplomacy between our two countries. They also proposed a plan to invest funds in an Iranian business, one that produces green and sustainable products, such as bicycles. This grassroots investment would be the opposite of efforts by the Bush administration and Congress to tighten sanctions, a move which CODEPINK thinks would only hurt ordinary, everyday Iranians. Such a symbolic CODEPINK investment in a green, sustainable business would challenge U.S. regulations blocking trade with Iran and would show how diplomacy and trade are preferable to war and sanctions."

And, from the Wall Street Journal, "Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin teamed up to block a vote on a bipartisan resolution "recognizing the strategic success of the troop surge in Iraq" and thanking our men and women in uniform for their efforts." "Citing General Petraeus by name, the resolution, which is sponsored by Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman and Republican Lindsey Graham, "commends and expresses the gratitude to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces for the service, sacrifices, and the heroism that made the success of the troop surge in Iraq possible."

"The reality is that success in Iraq has confounded the political left, which placed a hug political bet on our defeat. Senator Reid famously declared the war lost in April 2007. Joe Biden introduced a resolution opposing the surge. And Hillary Clinton said the reports of progress in Iraq required "a willing suspension of disbelief." In the Democratic narrative, our troops in Iraq are victims of a lost cause, not heroes. They're allowed to get maimed and killed, but not to succeed. Thus Democrats are left to argue that success in Iraq is irrelevant because the real fight against al Qaeda is occurring in Afghanistan. Or that the reduced violence in Iraq has resulted not from the troop surge but from the Sunni Awakening and the retreat of the Sadr militias."

"The Lieberman-Graham resolution is a chance for Democrats to show that their support for the troops is more than rhetorical. It changes no policy and in that sense is only symbolic. Yet it is precisely the political symbolism of admitting they were wrong that is stopping the Democratic leadership from letting it come up for a vote before the Senate adjourns. Unfortunately, the last thing that Democrats want to discuss in this election season is success in Iraq."

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