A message to Senator Obama

At the end of this post is a message sent to Senator Obama via his website.

Feel free to copy the message and resend it if you want. It is a point I see over and over from conservative and some mainstream journalists-that McCain was right on the surge and Obama's "surrender tactics" would have led to an Iraq in chaos. I opposed the surge (as did many top commanders), and I was wrong. The circumstances at the time led me to the belief that things would not get better and it was time to cut our losses and leave Iraq, whatever the consequences. And I applaud Senator McCain's judgement.

However, the real issue is not the surge, as in an Obama presidency, we would never go to war without rigorous planning for the aftermath. Obama would listen to generals like Eric Shinseki who warned that we did not have enough troops. Yes, McCain probably would not have invaded Iraq if he had been president, he would have listened to the generals, and he was right on the surge, but the fact still remains that he still supports the initial invasion. He believes that the central fight against terror is Iraq, where al-Qaeda only went after we invaded and toppled Saddam.

We as a country have forgotten the crimes of the Bush administration that led us into war in the first place. I will repeat this until it is heard: John McCain was right on the surge, but Barack Obama was right on the war.

===a message to Senator Obama===

Senator McCain seems to have come up with an effective (for now) strategy regarding Iraq. A good portion of the American people still see him as a more capable commander in chief due to his military experience and his foresight in pushing for the troop surge. Those people that still trust Senator McCain over Senator Obama on Iraq are not those who are likely to be swayed by PM Nouri al-Maliki's "endorsement" of the Obama Iraq proposal.

The nation seems to have forgotten who was right on the bigger issue of going to war in the first place. The nation has forgotten the lies the Bush administration used to lead us into Iraq. And the nation has forgotten that John McCain still supports the initial decision to go to war. If Senator Obama had been president, he would never have had the chance to go wrong on the surge, because it would never have happened.

Senator Obama, if you wish to dispel John McCain's supposed superiority on the Iraq issue, you need to remind voters that you were right on the most important decision-the initial one. The recent successes in Iraq have made many people forget all the killing that has already happened. Don't let America forget that you were the one to oppose the war from the beginning.