Quote:
Originally Posted by PaoloSmythe
i find McCain being vigourous in support and accusing Obama of denying any positive effects (when he has acknoweldged improvements) to be as willfully obstinant as Obama saying he would still oppose any troop surge even in light of evidence that it helped the situation.
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Not everyone sees the deployment of more troops as the reason for the decrease in violence. Violence may be down since it started, but that doesn't automatically mean that's the reason for the improvement. Some people will tell you it's because we've been bribing militia groups with US tax dollars to be on our side, areas of religious strife have been completely cleansed of one side of the combatants, and because Al-Sadr called a cease fire on his own. Most of the troops in the surge went to Baghdad, yet the Sunni awakening that was truely responsible for running Al-Qaeda out took place outside the capital and started before the surge was even launched. I'm not sure what to believe myself, but figure it's probably a horribly complicated combination of all those things together, including extra stability from increased troop presence.
I too am sick to death of hearing McCain and others talk about a necessary "victory" in this war. Now that the reasons given for going to war and killing thousands of people have been proven false, there is no victory anymore in my book, just varying shades of catastrophe.
Republicans are going to slam Obama no matter what he does, but it's going to be interesting to hear how they try to put a negative spin on 200,000 people showing up to hear him speak in Berlin while McCain was broadcasting live from the supermarket cheese cooler.