Profiles In Judgment: Item #3

Obama to Bush on Troops Surge: It's A Mistake January 05, 2007 4:06 PM

Wesley Clark: Bush's 'surge' will backfire

Obama And McCain Debate The Troop Surge Jan 14, 2007

Obama's position is to impede a chance at victory and retreat:

"I personally think that, if there are ways that we can constrain and condition what the president is doing so that, four to six months from now, we are beginning a phased withdrawal while making sure that the troops on the ground have the equipment that they need to succeed, then that is going to be the area that I'm most interested in supporting," he said.

McCain's position is to adapt to change, clear and hold to succeed:

"I can't guarantee it will succeed, but I can guarantee catastrophe if we fail or continue the present strategy — and that is that we will go in and we will clear and hold and build," McCain told Bob Schieffer. "As most people know, we have gone in to clear and left, and the insurgents have returned. This is a chance under the new leadership of General Petraeus and Admiral Fallon to have a chance to succeed. Do I believe it can succeed? Yes, I do."

Now that we have the hindsight knowing the Iraqi government has met 15 of 18 benchmarks of a Congress that itself is unable to accomplish a thing and that Iraqi and Coalition forces have stomped the last significant force of terrorists in Mosul... which person had the better judgment?