ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz has made 17 reporting trips to Iraq. Just home from her most recent trip, and appearing tonight as she often does on PBS's Washington Week, she said that today for the first time the Iraq war feels like it is mostly over, definitely winding down.
Raddatz has had plenty negative to say about the Iraq endeavor, and probably most of it was justified. Now she says it feels like the bad guys are going to lose, not just someday but relatively soon. For everybody who likes to see the U.S. win when it sends troops into the field (including most readers of this blog), this is good news from a relatively unimpeachable source.
Inevitably this is also good news for the McCain campaign. John McCain has been wrong about many things, but Iraq hasn't been one of them. He was for the surge before almost anybody else, showing outstanding "commander in chief" qualifications.
Raddatz also reports that commanders on the ground in Iraq say the kind of withdrawal timetable proposed by Senator Obama isn't logistically possible. That won't be a problem. As the candidate of change he is willing to change whatever is inconvenient, including first and foremost his former stands on issues.
