Hillary Takes Credit For “So-Called” Surge Success

During Thursday night's Republican debate, presidential candidate Mitt Romney said something that angered me a bit…

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"And one more thing. What — what an audacious and arrogant thing for the Democrats to say, as Hillary Clinton did, that they are responsible for the progress that the surge has seen, by virtue of their trying to pull out so quickly. "Look, the success over there is due to the — the blood and the courage of our servicemen and women, and to General Petraeus and to President Bush, not to General Hillary Clinton."

To think that Hillary Clinton would, on behalf of Senator Harry Reid and the anti-war movement, attempt to take credit for the "so-called surge" success because of opposition to the war, would be brazen at best, and opportunism at worst. So I employed my perilous routine of skimming and found, within the January 21 Congressional Black Caucus Democrat debate, the following quote from Mrs. Clinton…

"I believe what you're seeing happen is twofold. Of course the surge, the so-called surge, was able to pacify certain parts of Iraq. If we put enough of our men and women and equipment in, we're going to be able to have some tactical military success. But the whole purpose of the surge was to force the Iraqi government to move quickly towards the kind of resolution that only it can bring about. "I think what is motivating the Iraqi government is the debate in the political campaign here. They know they will no longer have a blank check from George Bush, that I will withdraw troops from Iraq. And I believe that will put even more pressure on the Iraqis to finally make the decisions that they have to make."

I may be an insignificant veteran here, but I thought the purpose of the "so-called surge" was to eradicate al Qaeda from Iraq, stop the violence by them targeting our military and Iraqi civilians, and thus create a climate for all the different factions to come together and form a stable government. I had no idea that the current Democrat presidential campaigns were inspiring, and/or coercing, the Iraqis to get their political house in order before Hillary assumes the office and pulls the plug on our military operations. To think that the Democrat anti-war strategy has now evolved into one that moved from "The war is lost" to "I think what is motivating the Iraqi government is the debate in the political campaign here" is a glaring example of Clinton (and liberal) narcissism. The mainstream media may give her a pass because they are like-minded, but that game will not be played here. The Democrat Party, through their anti-war, defeatist rhetoric, emboldened the enemy, thus costing many of our soldiers and Iraqi civilians their lives. Hillary Clinton will not be allowed to re-write history. The Surge is not "so-called" except in the minds of the anti-war left, and now officially in the mind of the woman who would be Commander in Chief. Remember that on Election Day.