Obama Hits the Bullseye Blindfolded

For Mr. Obama, all the world is a stage, with a fawning press cheering him on. Grim theaters of battle where America's bravest fight and die to bring order out of chaos are but dramatic backdrop.

It's been a breathless torrent of dispatches since Mr. Obama departed on the overseas tour that will magically bestow foreign policy credentials upon him.

Obama backers and the press (but I repeat myself) insist that Iraqi PM Maliki's apparent embrace of a 16 month timeline proves that Obama was right all along. This assertion is illogical and selective. Obama has been relentlessly pushing the 16 month timeline for over a year. Was he right when he first proposed it, insisting at the time that the surge would fail?

Obama is like the man who, day and night, continues to loudly announce (wrongly), "It's eight p.m.!" and when the clock finally strikes eight, he shouts, "Aha! I told you it was eight pm!"

Of course, the O-Man is too polished to shout, his press lackeys do that for him.

Meanwhile, Maliki spokesmen have tried to back down from the comments that appear to support Obama's position: Excerpt from CNN:

But a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately."

Der Spiegel stands by its story, pointing out that the translating was done by Maliki's own guy. Here's what they and all reporters leave out: Arabic is much more difficult to translate than German or French. It is a very subtle language and its speakers often express themselves in flowery circumlocutions, stating what they wish reality was while downplaying unpleasant truths.

This also explains the apparent schizophrenic poll results from Iraq. Everybody wants the US out. But they want us to stay. The simple explanation is that Iraqis don't like foreigners on their soil, which they express loudly, but they know deep down that a too-rapid departure would quickly bring a descent into hell on a greased rail.

John McCain brass-knuckled the Pentagon and the White House into accepting a strategy change, and our brilliant military machine made it happen. Obama spoke some words that had no effect on strategy. He opposed the surge and now wants to claim he is "right" on Iraq.

That's Audacity.