Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is struggling to admit the obvious: the “surge” strategy in Iraq has worked. On Fox News last night, Obama — for the first time — finally tried to sound supportive of our success. But he also tried to argue the surge has “succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated” and “succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.” 

What in the world is he talking about? It is simply not true that nobody anticipated such success. Many of us have long believed and predicted that U.S. and coalition forces would achieve a dramatic victory in Iraq, despite enormous challenges. In Epicenter, for example, first released in 2006, I wrote: “Those who argue that Iraq’s liberation will not succeed in bring about a season of stability and prosperity are making [a] mistake….The truth is that Iraq will form a strong, stable, and decisive central government. Iraq’s military and internal security forces will be well trained, well equipped, and increasingly effective. The insurgency will be crushed, support for it will evaporate, and foreign terrorists will stop flowing into the country.” What’s more, many of us believed and predicted the “surge” strategy in particular would work brilliantly, despite the naysayers and cynics. And we having been reporting on its success all year after seeing it for ourselves in Iraq. [See also this blog posting.  And this one. And this one.  And this one. And this one.] It didn’t take “wild dreams” to anticipate success in Iraq. It required sound judgment, wise strategy, steady support for our brave forces in Iraq, faith in the Iraqi people, and patience amidst adversity. Sen. Obama’s, sadly, displayed none of the above.