Heh...

McCain needs to make this point at the debates. How the left will go crazy if he compares Obama to Rumsy!
From The Jawa Report;

September 21, 2008

If you liked Donald Rumsfeld's Iraq Strategy, You'll Love Barack Obama

I meant to write something on this a couple of week's ago after watching the Frontline special on the Iraq War. The point made in the PBS documentary was that Donald Rumsfeld's Iraq strategy was no different than that of Barack Obama's: get a "political solution", and then get the hell out.

It turns out, according the the documentary, that it was Condi Rice that pushed for the "clear, hold, & build" strategy. In my imagination, fed by MSM stories of the blood thirsty Rumsfeld, the SecDef wanted an indefinite commitment to Iraq while Rice wanted to get us out. Not so, apparently.

Here's a story from the WSJ on why the surge worked. You really should read it, but here's a teaser:

For the next three years, Donald Rumsfeld and the senior generals pushed a "short-war" scenario, "which was to get a political solution quickly, transition to the Iraqis security quickly, and get out," says Gen. Keane. "It didn't work." ....

In late 2006, after the midterm election debacle for Republicans, pressure rose for a quick if dishonorable exit from Iraq. Gen. Keane met Frederick Kagan, who was putting together a report on an alternative strategy for Iraq at the American Enterprise Institute. On Dec. 11, both men found themselves at the White House to push the plan. Congress, the Joint Chiefs, Iraq commander Gen. George Casey and the Iraq Study Group all wanted a fast drawdown. President Bush ignored their advice. Gen. Petraeus was sent out in February to oversee the new, risky and politically unpopular surge.

Barry O likes to talk up the fact that he was against the war when it wasn't the cool thing to do. Someday history may record that he was on the right side, if not the popular one.

But he was on the side of popular opinion when it came to supporting the Iraq Study Group's disastrous recommendations. And he opposed the surge. Just like Donald Rumsfeld.

If he had such prophetic foresight why did he not back the surge when it was still unpopular?

You know the only thing the two policies --the war and the surge -- have in common? They're both Bush's. Obama likes to call opposition to them wisdom and vision. Normally we just call it crass partisanship.