Iraq: Surge Resurgence? by Jim Lobe

http://www.lobelog.com/iraq-surge-resurgence/#more-29538

Iraq: Surge Resurgence?

by Jim Lobe
Two weeks ago, The Washington Post’s premier neoconservative columnist, Charles Krauthammer, wrote the following:

The fact is that by the end of Bush’s tenure, the [Iraq] war had been won. You can argue that the price of that victory was too high. Fine. We can debate that until the end of time. But what is not debatable is that it was a victory.

Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a front-page article on former Vice President Dick Cheney’s new push—along with his daughter Liz and their two-year-old Alliance for a Strong America—to vindicate the Bush administration’s post-9/11 global war on terror (GWOT) and promote an even more aggressive agenda for the future. From the Journal’s interview:

He was particularly dismissive of the recent Iraq debate in which just about every GOP candidate said, no, they wouldn’t have invaded Iraq, had they known the intelligence was incorrect: “The relevant question first ought to be directed to Obama, and it’s: ‘Knowing what you know now, would you have abandoned Iraq and pulled the troops out three years ago?’”

It would not be surprising if Cheney’s question/non sequitur becomes henceforward the standard response for Republican presidential candidates when they are confronted by difficult questions regarding their positions on the Iraq war (although Jon Stewart’s treatment of the subject, “Learning Curves Are for Pussies,” on The Daily Show Tuesday night should help). Indeed, the theme is hardly new. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have been complaining bitterly about the U.S. withdrawal since even before it took place. But Cheney, according to the Journal, has made frequent trips to Capitol Hill to advise the Republican leadership, and several GOP declared and undeclared candidates have tapped his questionable wisdom.
So it seems timely to review a bit what the Surge, which, in Cheney’s and Krauthammer’s view, delivered “victory” for the U.S. by the time Obama took office, did and didn’t do.