In a response to Monday’s NYPost article quoting an Iraqi official saying that Barack Obama asked for a delay in US troop drawdowns, the Obama campaign put out a press release more or less saying that’s exactly what he meant:

Despite a lot of rhetoric that our troops in Iraq need to come home, especially if the Iraqi people don’t want us there, and about how it’s time for a change in Washington, it seems it’s politics as usual Barack Obama.

From CNN, “Coalition troops on Monday formally handed over security control of Iraq’s Anbar province — once the hub of the country’s Sunni insurgency, to Iraqis on Monday.” Is it all sunshine and roses? No, but it is a true milestone, in a good way. I like this quotation from a Guardian story:

Anbar was once off-limits to all but local people, with long-distance traffic rare on roads from Baghdad to Jordan and Syria. But the father of a Shia family who drove back to Baghdad from Syria this week through Anbar said: “It is safe. I had no fear about bringing my wife and children.”

Good writeup here at Castle Aargghhh! More spelled out here at Mudville Gazette. Thank you to our military and to President Bush.

As the years go by and this presidency begins to end, the factors that led us into war are beginning to surface. In today’s WSJ, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, provides us with five factors as to why we are fighting in Iraq today.

There is an excellent article up on Real Clear Politics by Gregory Scoblete, a freelance writer out of New Jersey, who accurately identifies the true debate we should be having about McCain’s comment about staying in Iraq “100 years.”

From Senator Jim Webb’s press office: