Listening to the conference call just conducted by two senior administration officials, one is struck by the extent to which this administration has now appropriated the tactics, the language, and the logic of the 2007 surge in Iraq for their own 2010 surge into Afghanistan. This senior administration official called the surge a surge. As McCormack notes below, he also said that any draw down would be “dictated by conditions on the ground.” There is no timetable for withdrawal, there is no dopey rhetoric about how pulling out would force the Afghans to act responsibly (which is what Obama was saying in late 2006/early 2007 when Bush, Petraeus, and McCain were pushing the Iraq surge). The senior administration official on the call also accepted that this escalation was, in a very real sense, of a piece with the Bush administration’s Afghanistan policy. Ben Smith transcribes the key line:
Who knows what kind of language Obama will use tonight, and lord knows Obama will never admit that he was wrong about anything, but for those who supported the 2007 surge in Iraq, this kind of rhetoric along with the decision to surge forces into Afghanistan is an implicit admission from President Obama that he was wrong in 2007. And the left knows it, which is at least partly why they are up in arms about this decision. And if Obama’s surge is as successful as Bush’s was (an 80 percent reduction in US casualties and the routing of Al Qaeda in Iraq), you have to think he’ll be pretty pleased with the result.
