"Masterful oratory, abysmal ignorance ..."

Neo on Obama's Iraq speech:

Peter Wehner does a wonderful job of fisking Obama’s recent speech on Iraq in which the candidate combined masterful oratory, abysmal ignorance, denial, and lawyerly circumlocutions in his signature manner to show exactly why he should never be elected President (not that his supporters know or care).

Perhaps Obama’s speech reflects the fact that he faces a real conundrum on Iraq. Not only has he been consistently wrong about the surge, but he was bold enough to go on record in an unequivocal manner about how it would not work. His predictions have since been contradicted by facts on the ground.

In that, of course, he was no different than 99% (roughly speaking) of his Democrat colleagues, and most of the MSM. But they’re not running for President. He is.

Here's Peter Wehner at Commentary:

Senator Obama’s speech on Tuesday in St. Paul, when he finally locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, was typical: rhetorically powerful, well-delivered, with some clever and well-constructed lines. But when you examine the substance of what he said, the speech breaks down. Some of his claims are questionable and misleading; others are ill-informed; and still others border on being intellectually dishonest. Obama’s statement on Iraq are particularly revealing.

According to Obama:

I won’t stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq.

In fact, Obama doesn’t have to “pretend” there are many good options left in Iraq. There is one obvious good option: to continue policies that are manifestly succeeding and qualify as one of the most impressive military turnabouts in our history. According to yesterday’s operational update by Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner,

For the third week in a row security incidents in Iraq are at the lowest levels in four years. These numbers reflect fewer attacks on Iraqi civilians, fewer attacks on Iraqi and Coalition Forces, and fewer attacks on the Government’s infrastructure. These security gains follow the coordinated offensive operations over the past year, and the recent security operations in Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra.

The security progress we’ve making is now translating into encouraging progress on the political and economic fronts as well. There is no question, then, that Iraq, which remains in many ways a broken and splintered country, has made enormous strides. It is virtually beyond dispute that the “surge” strategy endorsed by President Bush (and opposed by Senator Obama) is working, and working better and faster than anyone could have imagined just a year ago.

Obama's speech is here.