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By Jeff Emanuel Posted in Barack Obama | Obamafiles | Surrender is the new pink | War — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Stop the presses -- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has gone on record saying that here is "an improvement in the situation in Iraq." From AFP (via the Corner):

Kouchner said on Sunday that the security situation in Iraq was improving and reaffirmed France's willingness to help rebuild the war-ravaged country. [...]

"Statistics show a drop in security incidents," Kouchner told AFP after a working lunch with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari on the last day of his two-day visit to Iraq. [...]

Kouchner also voiced satisfaction at efforts by the Iraqis to take charge of their own country, saying they were making "progress."

In other news, Barack Obama has stated that one of the main goals for the first 100 days of his administration would be to convene the Joint Chiefs of Staff not to receive an update about the situation in Iraq, or to hear their recommendations for how best to proceed in the Middle East, but "to devise a plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq."

Read on.

This, of course, falls in line with Obama's attempts to walk back his recalcitrance on a potential Iraq "fact-finding" trip. After rebuffing John McCain's offers of a joint trip to Iraq that would allow Obama to gain a little knowledge and perspective (since he hasn't visited that country since a little two-day jaunt in early 2006), the Obama campaign attempted to backpedal a bit from their original claim that any trip to the actual location of the war their candidate uses every speech to rail against would constitute engaging in a "political stunt." Last week, spokesman Robert Gibbs was sent to MSNBC to say that they might make a trip after all -- but only to find the quickest way to run up a white flag and bring the U.S. troops home.

Actually finding facts, you see, is out of the question.

As our own Dan McLaughlin wrote at his site a little while ago:

Obama opposed the 'surge,' proposing instead to withdraw from Iraq beginning in May 2007, with a complete withdrawal to be completed two months ago. The one thing Obama can't afford - especially while he's still courting Democratic primary voters - is to face up to new information showing that he was wrong or needs to change his preferred strategy, the way President Bush did in approving Gen. Petraeus' approach.

Unfortunately for Obama, his entire platform on Iraq - and the "plans" that he has floated on it in the past - are constructed from the pre-2007 view of the U.S. being on the brink of humiliating defeat in that country.

Now, as even the Washington Post has acknowledged, that's no longer the case. "When Mr. Obama floated his strategy for Iraq last year," wrote the WaPo, "the United States appeared doomed to defeat. Now he needs a plan for success."

That doesn't appear to be something Mr. Obama is able -- or willing -- to do.

Amazingly, he has now put himself more firmly in the "Surrender" camp than the Western nation that is best known for its proclivities for wine, cheese, and surrender in wars.

That's got to be a very uncomfortable place to be.