In an exercise of historical revisionism that takes my breath away, on the Larry King show Wednesday night, Vice President Joe Biden took credit for the victory in Iraq (emphasis by The Weekly Standard):
I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer.
You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government. I spent — I’ve been there 17 times now. I go about every two months — three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society.
It’s impressed me. I’ve been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.
Unbe-frickin-lievable. This is the administration whose mantra is "we inherited that."
Upon returning from Iraq in 2007, Biden told Tim Russert:
… There was a big disconnect between the truth of the matter and the reality. I mean, the truth of the matter is that, that the-America's-this administration's policy and the surge are a failure, and that the surge, which was supposed to stop sectarian violence and-long enough to give political reconciliation, there's been no political reconciliation. …
…
The fact of the matter is that there is—that this idea of these security gains we’ve made have had no impact on the underlying sectarian dynamic. None. None whatsoever… And can anybody envision a central government made up of Sunni, Shia and Kurds that’s going to gain the trust and respect of 27 million Iraqis? It’s not going to happen.
…
There’ve been some tactical gains, but they have no ultimate bearing, at this point, on the prospect of there being a political settlement in Iraq that would allow American troops to come home without leaving chaos behind… The central problem is a sectarian war. If every jihadist in Iraq was killed tomorrow, we’d still have a major civil war killing thousands—wounding thousands of Americans and killing hundreds of Americans just since the surge began.
It took less than a minute to find the above and scores of others about Obama, Biden, and associates insisting in 2007 that "Iraq is lost" and opposing the surge that ultimately won the war. Here are some examples from this post:
“I opposed this war from the beginning. I opposed the war in 2002. I opposed the war in 2003. I opposed it in 2004, and 2005 and 2006. I introduced the plan in January to remove all of our combat brigades out of Iraq by next March. And I am here to say that we have to begin to end this war now – not tomorrow, not the next day, not six months from now, but now.”
–Barack Obama, September 12 2007
“It’s time to turn the corner in my view, gentlemen. We should stop the surge and start bringing our troops home. We should end a political strategy in Iraq that cannot succeed and begin one that can.”
–Joe Biden, September 11 2007
…
Petraeus’ report, and the notion that the surge was working, was attacked throughout the day by a Murderer’s Row of Democrats: Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel and the Democrat presidential ticket of 2008, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
…
Harry Reid also led the charge to the rear for the Democrats, beginning in April.
“Now, I believe myself that the secretary of State, the secretary of Defense – and you have to make your own decision as to what the president knows – that this war is lost and that the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday.”
–Harry Reid, April 19, 2007 press conference.
Despite the Democrats' denials, declarations of defeat, and determination to derail the Petraeus plan, the surge worked and we won the war in Iraq.
And now this poltroon and his pals are prepared to pat themselves on the back for their "great achievements" in Iraq? Mr. Vice President, have you no shame, sir?
