HB

If he were in charge, these Iraqi people would be getting raped and oppressed by Saddam and his sadistic sons.

And there would be 4000 American soldiers that would not have been killed, 30,000+ American soldiers that would not have been seriously wounded. We might well have captured Osama bin Laden and everyone may well have already forgotten about al Qaeda too.

Instead, we got Saddam and we are still letting Osama, the architect of 9/11,  run around the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I think that was the worst strategic blunder in American history. Any person that thinks these decisions were absolutely the right choices, as McCain does, clearly lacks the judgment to be president.

If this is what Obama believes, then it is clearly the "honorable" answer.

No! Honor is not merely a function of subjective belief. Many people "believe" things that aren’t good. (Also, I changed "honorable" to "good")

The surge has demonstrably worked to pacify Iraq. It was a necessary change to a policy that wasn’t working. For him to STILL be opposed to the surge, despite the new facts on the ground, means that he is a "bitter-ender." He wants to leave without victory, regardless of what is happening.

That’s not honorable.

After reading a lot of Totten, Yon and the 2 Daves here, I’m breathing a sigh of relief that we are doing good work in Iraq, improving the lives of the Iraqi people.

That’s why, in part, I am voting for McCain.

To me, Obama’s opposition to the surge, and his subsequent failure to acknowledge its objective success is an absolute deal-breaker.

If he were in charge, these Iraqi people would be getting raped and oppressed by Saddam and his sadistic sons.

The man lacks the guts to change his view in light of new facts, and thus, lacks the judgment to become Commander-in-Chief

HB

Do you think it’s a good answer?

If this is what Obama believes, then it is clearly the "honorable" answer.

Obama clearly understands that only some of the improved security situation in Iraq is because of the surge. The problem with the surge was it was never a sustainable strategy. The surge troops were kept in Iraq as long as they could be kept there, and then they were forced to leave. We have no more reserves that can be deployed. The commanders in Afghanistan need more troops, but the US just does not have any troops to send and will not have any troops available to send until next year. That is the price that we have to pay for the surge in Iraq.

Obama has said that  Afghanistan and Pakistan are the centeral front in the war on terrorism, not Iraq. I aggree with Obama that is was a major strategic error to make Iraq the centeral front.

Ok, I will rephrase:

Do you think it’s a good answer?
HB

mikeca

The concept of withdrawal timetables is a hopelessly simplistic approach to the problems we faced and still face in Iraq. Do you leave a conflict while the enemy is still present and committing violence against the civilian population? Would it be acceptable for a surgeon to leave cancerous tissue in a patient because his "timetable" required him to go play golf? Should police officers end a standoff and walk away after some period of time?

It’s abundantly clear what the "insurgents" told the Iraqi people: "You will do it our way or we will kill you and your families until you do." And the Iraqi response to the terrorists ultimately was "Fuck you!". With significant support from US forces, they were able to retake their lives. And the process has been repeated in multiple places. Iraqi’s don’t want to be occupied by foreign forces, but they’ve learned which foreign forces they can trust, and it’s not the terrorists.

I think he means intellectually honest.  I heard the sound bite that Hank is referencing here.  Obama said "No" and then meandered around for a moment and effectively dodged the question.  He then stated that "we don’t know if my plan would have worked because we never tried it". 
So, we know what *did* work, and he does too; yet his response is "No".  That’s intellectually dishonest.  He’s merely pandering to his constituency and trying to save political face.

Question for Mikeca:

Obama was asked by Terry Moran of ABC: "Knowing what you know now, would you support the surge?"

His response was "No."

Do you think that’s an honorable answer?

HB