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Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Obama Hails Bush's Iraq Success as "Extraordinary Achievment"

OK, so Obama doesn't actually cite Bush by name, but he does so implicitly by calling Iraq an "extraordinary achievement." (Yes, this is despite the fact that he said that the surge was sure to fail back in 2007 and demanded we, ahem, Bush waive the white flag). From the WSJ:

Speaking to GIs in one of Saddam Hussein's old palaces, Mr. Obama ticked off America's accomplishments in Iraq: "From getting rid of Saddam, to reducing violence, to stabilizing the country, to facilitating elections -- you have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. That is an extraordinary achievement."

...Prior to his Iraq visit, the President was asked by a Turkish student whether his Iraq policies were fairly close in substance to George W. Bush's. "Well, just because I was opposed at the outset, it doesn't mean that I don't have now responsibilities to make sure we do things in a responsible fashion," Mr. Obama replied. We'll mark that down as a "yes."

In other words, Obama and the Democrats have no problem seeing their country fail and lose a war if it is the fault of a Republican, but they don't want to be blamed themselves. How patriotic...