Wow! It is finally official: we won the war in Iraq!
No less an expert than the esteemed vice president of the United States has told the good news to the American public. On the Larry King show (Feb. 10), Joe Biden said he is “very optimistic” about the survivability of the democratic government now in place.
And who is to get the credit for this victory — for turning a tribalist totalitarian dictatorship into a reason- able facsimile of a modern multicultural democratic state? Why, Obama, of course. Obama won the war — with the able guidance and support of (ahem!) Mr. Biden himself.
Biden crowed, “I mean, this could be one of the greatest achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.” He added archly, “I’ve been there 17 times now. . . . I know every one of the major players in all segments of that society.”
Now, this is insufferably rich. Biden was one of the pack of flip-flopping hypocritical hounds who first voted to go to war in Iraq, then later opposed that course, call- ing for an international summit of Middle Eastern nations, under some fuzzy theory that they would take over and allow us to pull out. Still later (in his abortive run for the presidency), he called for splitting Iraq into three rump nations.
Biden’s master, Obama, deserves as little credit. He opposed the surge and exulted on his website (until July of 2008) that it was failing. But that won’t prevent him from claiming the credit.
Will Obama perhaps award himself the Medal of Honor? No, surely that honor must go to Biden, for turning up in Iraq those 17 times.
