Brain damaged commentary about Iraq

Senator Barack Obama seems to have this magic power for convincing otherwise sane people to believe absurdities. The latest example comes from David Corn (via Andrew Sullivan):

So what might happen to the McCain candidacy if the talks [governing the future of U.S. troops in Iraq]--which are supposed to lead to an agreement by the end of July--fail and Iraq gives Bush the boot? McCain won't have a war to promote any longer. And he won't be able to depict Barack Obama as a defeatist surrender-monkey who will yank out troops precipitously and endanger every single family in the United States. In other words, half of McCain's campaign will be gone. (On the Today Show this morning, McCain said that "General Petraeus is going to tell us" when U.S. troops can be withdrawn from Iraq. McCain seemed oblivious to this recent news and the possibility that Iraqis may tell the United States when to withdraw.)

This is seriously and profoundly flawed reasoning. Consider, for example, the charge that "McCain won't have a war to promote any longer" if the Iraqi government calls for American troops to leave Iraq. In late 2006/early 2007, the Democrats considered Iraqi to be in a state of out-of-control violence, total political failure, and civil war. The Democrats blamed these conditions on Bush's conduct of the war. In response, Senator John McCain called for a change of strategy, namely the "surge", and President Bush agreed and went ahead with it.

Now it's two years later. The violence in Iraq has dropped dramatically. The government of Iraq is becoming increasingly stable and effective. If the Iraqi government asks us to withdraw our troops now, it's because we have achieved victory(!!!) to the satisfaction of Iraqis! To think that this would be some kind of killer argument against the McCain campaign is totally insane.

Trust me, if the Iraqi government does call on the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraqi, the political situation will be exactly the opposite of what David Corn believes. If that happens, George W. Bush and John McCain will be proclaiming success from the nation's rooftops while Barack Obama and the Democrats will be complaining that our troops needed to stay in Iraq (until after the election, that is...).