Hagel being a 'maverick' himself, let's hope that he doesn't undercut Barak on or after the visit.

BushCo will undoubtedly claim that Obama is conducting his own diplomacy, undercutting our war on terra.

There's also some pitfalls in this visit, since some commanders in the military are already getting very political, and the wingnuts (including McCain and campaign in that designator) will be pumping up the volume on any voices that speak against Obama.

All considered, the visit(s) are a good idea, but negative results are more than a possibility. I wish he was taking John Warner (R-VA) along for insurance along with Jack Reed (D).

Yes, I'm paranoid.

Yes, Hagel is putting aside partisan concerns to try and educate the potential next president of the united states about victory. Amazingly, Ezra is either incapable or unwilling to talk about what will happen when Obama actually bothers to visit Iraq. Do you suppose he'll be able to look Iraqis in the eye and tell them they're not worth the trouble of liberating? That, if he had his way, Saddam would still be in power?

Its nice Ezra recognizes Obama's trip as completely political and not anything to do with substance.

Clealry the surge has worked and Iraq is not in the middle of a major bloody civil war the way Obama and Hagel predicted. This means Obamas only logical Iraq position is that he can withdraw American troops and abandon Iraq much much faster then he originally planned.

Apparently Barack not only wants American troops to speak French, so they don't embarrass him when they are abroad, he also wants them to act like the French and surrender early and often....

It is a very interesting question, since Obama insists our troops lives have been 'wasted' in Iraq. Why, sir, if you plan to abandon Iraq, why wait 16 months to do it??

If you don't plan to support a Democratic Iraq and in the end were just leaving and they can sink or swim; won't you be wasting our troops lives for 16 months with your slow, bloody surrender??

What solder, what soldiers family would possibly volunteer to be wounded or die in a slow motion surrender?

a major coup for the Obama campaign.

Is it? Or is it once more playing into a republican meme that democrats can't be trusted with national security and need the big, strong republican manly man to hold their hands?

Why not take Jim Webb along?

Haven't you heard Webb and Warner have publicly turned Obama down for VP...they know he's not going to win Virginia this November.

What Obama and the Democrats need to do is start writing their War Surrender and Withdraw legislation. Obama can't just decide to surrender in a war the Congress has authorized by law and has voted to fund. Presidents are just Commanders in Chief, Congress declares and Congress will have to rescind the War Resolutions and funding.

Can't wait to read the WHEREAS's:

WHEREAS America has brought Democracy to Iraq; we will now turn it back over to terrorists like the former leader Saddam Hussein.

WHEREAS 4,000 Americans sacrificed there lives to free Iraq, we will now make sure that sacrifice was a complete waste.

WHEREAS we don't really care what happenes to a free, Democratic Iraq, were much more inetrested in getting sweet mortgage deals and half price apartments.....

WHEREAS PM Maliki has stood up for freedom of Iraq, we will now pull a Jessie Jackson on him and rips his nuts out....

There's enough GOP whistling past the graveyard going on here to tackle The Art of the Fugue.

What the fuck is the deal with this comments section? If someone trolls on a thread, and nobody is there to read it, did the troll actually happen?

The weekend shift of paid trolls work on commission.

Do you suppose he'll be able to look Iraqis in the eye and tell them they're not worth the trouble of liberating? That, if he had his way, Saddam would still be in power?

Maybe he can look the families of some of the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis in the eye and say that if he had his way, their loved ones would still be alive?

i think that barack is going to be overwhelmed with genuine enthusiasm and affection at each stop on his foreign visit! i think the response will be wonderful!
the rest of the world will receive him as the new order of american leadership...diplomacy, sanity, crediblity, energy, intelligence!

i am very enthusiastic about his visit abroad!!!!!
i am sure he will be touched by many stories in iraq and it will be a very positive trip for him.
blessings for his trip,

Damn, Chris. You put that a lot better than I could've.

Normally I don't endorse responding to trolls, but Amen to that.

i think that barack is going to be overwhelmed with genuine enthusiasm and affection at each stop on his foreign visit! i think the response will be wonderful!

Riiiiight. Because if there's on thing they love in the region, it's Americans.

Considering how McCain has also said that our troops lives' have been "wasted" in Iraq, glass houses and all that.

So we have al-Maliki calling for some sort of timeline, a lack of the political reconciliation that was the whole goal of the surge (meaning the surge failed) and GOP hacks getting weirder and weirder. Mission Accomplished!

Also, wasn't the "liberation" supposed to come from overthrowing Saddam? How are we still "liberating" Iraqis five years later? Do conservatives even know what words mean anymore. Double-plus ungood.

""Maybe he can look the families of some of the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis in the eye and say that if he had his way, their loved ones would still be alive?""

Actually Barack Obama's Iraq policy was to continue the genocidal embargoes and sanctions of the Clinton adminstration which killed more Iraqis then Bush ever dreamed of killing.

Of course Madeline Albright told us all that 500,000 dead Iraqi children was 'worth it'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1KwVz_e1Gk&feature=related

Obama said he would keep the amctions on and continue the killing until Saddam or his sons left power. He didn't care if that would have taken 20 years and another 3 million childrens lives.

It is a great irony that the left and Obama now argue that having troops in Iraq is what is causing radical muslims to attck us, when Osama Bin Laden himself stated he carried out the Sept 11th attacks due to their policy of genocidal sanctions on the Iraqi public.

The very policy Barack Obama wanted to preserve is the exact policy our enemy says caused them to leave their falafel stands and slaughter Americans.

For anyone who knows anything about the military, this should have been an absolutley disasterous week for Obama.

Obama claimed he would call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and give them a new mission, to end the war.

Obama is so completely ignorant, he doesn't even understand the Joint Chiefs are not even in the war chain of Command and do not develop and implement war strategies.

The ACTUAL chain of Command for war planning and execution would go to the SECDEF, to the Combatant Commander (USCENTCOM).

The fact that Obama has no clue and would be a total embarrassment by addressing the JCS on a area total out of their control, by law, would just end what little respect the military will have for someone who hasn't even learned what they do.

And Ezra says its a great week to be shown to be an absolutely ignorant on how the military he wants to lead functions.

would just end what little respect the military will have for someone who hasnt even learned what they do."

who shall we have respect for?
george w bush?
dick cheney?
donald rumsfeld?

the men who sent young soldiers into an unjust war, unable to properly safeguard their own lives?

the leader who declared mission accomplished when the worst fighting still was ahead of them?

the vice president who all but yawned in the face of their sacrifices?

the leadership that has abandoned rules of conduct for soldiers thereby, jeapordizing our own?

an administration that has spoken with honor about our soldiers and treated them poorly as veterans?

leaders who have created an unnaccountable mercenary force about which citizens know next to nothing, though we are paying for them,along with bloated, immoral contracts...while our families and friends are losing their homes, cant afford prescriptions or gasoline?

the leadership who tells us that while we pour billions into iraq, our own economic miseries are a figment of our imagination.

broken spirits, broken war, broken economy, broken diplomacy. broken democracy.

hopefully, obama will be victorious, and we will be able to turn the page on this sad chapter in our history.

When Hussein was carrying out an actual policy of genocide against the Kurds, it was the conservatives' hero, Reagan, who said Congress shouldn't criticize the genocide.

"Actually Barack Obama's Iraq policy was to continue the genocidal embargoes and sanctions of the Clinton adminstration which killed more Iraqis then Bush ever dreamed of killing."

The numbers look roughly equal. Add in the fact that the war is only five years old and the sanctions were in place for a decade and it becomes clear this war has been even bloodier for the Iraqis than the sanctions. The sanctions regime, after all, could have become more fine-grained to become more humane.

jacqueline, your obviously a heavy MSNBC and left wing blog viewer.
You seem to be as ignorant of the real world as Barack.

Secretary: Good morning Mr. President Obama, its your first day on the job...Contratulations. What would you like to do first?

Obama: Well, I think I'd like to stop that war in Iraq. Just who do I call to do that?

Secretary: Well I'm not exactly sure, who do you think?

Obama: Hmmmm, what about that Pentagon guy?

Secretary: I'm not sure, didn't Congress declare war? Don't they have to be involved?

Obama: Hmmmm. Yeah, we may need to talk to someone there. Ohh, this is really hard....

It's appropriate that he have Hegel there with him to help explain to the Iraqis why the surge was such a disaster.

"accompanied by a respected Republican Senator"?

Oh, yeah. Respected by the Democratic counterparts of the Republicans who respect Joe Lieberman.

I guess if you think the surge hasn't worked, you can also convince yourself that Chuck Hagel is a "respected Republican Senator".

In the real world, Hagel is widely known as a vacuuous twit who will do anything to get attention. What amazes me is why Obama would take along someone who could potentially outshine even him the Emperor's New Cloths Fashion Show?

"Because if there's on thing they love in the region, it's Americans."

You are absolutely correct. Those in the region who have had a chance to compare the Americans to Al Qaeda do indeed love the Americans. Their children, who may actually have a chance to avoid growning up in a brutish 7th-century theocracy, may well love them even more.