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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Donald Lambro :: Townhall.com Columnist
Foreign Tour Highlights Obama's Inexperience
by Donald Lambro
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The reason security has dramatically improved in Iraq, giving rise to Maliki's call for a speedier U.S. withdrawal, is the military surge McCain pushed -- but that Obama opposed and flatly predicted would fail.

"This is the same strategy that he voted against, railed against. He was completely wrong about the surge. It is succeeding, and we are winning," McCain said.

At the same time, the Arizona Republican appeared to embrace the emerging consensus for withdrawal sometime within Obama's two-year framework. "I think they could be largely withdrawn" in that time, but added, "it has to be based on conditions on the ground."

McCain's strategy, which he has pursued since clinching the nomination, is to bore in on Obama's woeful inexperience in national-security policy. McCain has been to Iraq and Afghanistan many times, and has met and talked frequently with U.S. military leaders, including the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the surge. Until Monday, Obama had never talked with Petraeus one-on-one.

It is more than a little pathetic to hear nightly network news reporters talking about Obama's overseas trip in terms of his gaining needed national-security experience and foreign-policy credentials. As if a few days abroad can miraculously give anyone the experience to be commander in chief in a time of war.

The irony is that the much-improved situation Obama observed in Iraq and the lessons he learned in a few hours of briefings from Petraeus were the result of a war strategy the junior senator has repeatedly rejected and ridiculed throughout his campaign. Bush approved the surge, but it has McCain's name written all over it.

That strategy came out of numerous trips to the war zones, constant nagging to change a war policy that wasn't working, and a heroic lifetime of military service.

McCain's message this week, partially blunted by the withdrawal debate, is that Obama lacks the judgment and experience to think strategically in a time of war. One does not get that kind of experience in a quickie photo-op tour of the battlefield.

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About The Author

Donald Lambro is chief political correspondent for The Washington Times.

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Reply # 1
Date: Jul 24, 2008 - 6:19 PM EST
Dave 2
Thank you for your comments. I concur that the world is a much different place than eight years ago. You could make that same argument for almost any other two periods in history; 2000 was different from 1992, 1992 different from 1980, 1980 different from 1976, and so on.

It still does not address the issue that the author raises with respect to lack of foreign policy credentials. In 2000 then-Governor Bush had no foreign policy experience yet that did not bother Republicans who eventually made him the nominee. So why now is it a valid argument because an equally inexperienced Democrat now seeks the Oval Office? I don't mind (and certainly expect) criticism of Senator Obama on policy issue; this "foreign policy inexperience" line is just blatant hypocrisy on the part of the author.

You also said, "No one would have believed terrorists would have tried to attack and actually succeeded in that effort." I would respectfully argue that no one would have believed that, before the perpetrator of 9/11 was caught or killed we would invade a country that had absolutely nothing to do with it. In an interview in March 2002, the President said, "I don't know where [Osama bin Laden] is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him...I truly am not that concerned about him." In September 2002, President Bush also said, "You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the War on Terror." If this is an example of Republican expertise in foreign policy then maybe there needs to be some change.

You also said, "In her interview even Katie Couric couldn't get a straight answer about one simple question concerning whether the surge in Iraq has been successful." Has President Bush met that same criteria about giving a straight answer to a simple question in every interview he's ever granted?
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Reply # 2
Date: Jul 24, 2008 - 9:04 AM EST
Obama will feel right at home in Germany
When Obama arrives in Germany and announces “Ich bin ein Anfänger” to the throngs of German admirers. We know Obama is among people with a kindred spirit. How do I know? I read it in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/world/europe/25german.htm l?_r=1&oref=slogin
"BERLIN — Under pressure from NATO, Germany announced Tuesday that it would increase the number of soldiers available for duty in Afghanistan by almost one-third to 4,500, but that it would maintain its policy of keeping the bulk of them away from the relatively violent southern provinces.
A German soldier from the NATO forces keeps watch as Afghan women and their children arrive to attend a free medical assistance camp by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in the outskirts of Kabul.
Germany has resisted calls from several NATO allies to send its soldiers to southern Afghanistan, where some contingents from the total force of 60,000 — more than half of them American — are facing stubborn resistance from resurgent Taliban fighters. "
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