What a former law professor knows about war...

[bijou]

So the Bloviator-in-Chief...er the president, found another excuse to do what he apparently likes to do most in the world: stand up and lob great globs of word volley into the air to the accompaniment of regular bursts of dutiful applause supplied by a carefully vetted and photogenically arranged crowd.

No, I'm not being fair. Actually there was a point to his speech on Friday in front of U.S. Marines at their base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and that was to announce that "by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."

But big whoop. Since the pres did not carefully define "combat mission" there is a lot of room for interpretation here and no guarantee that anything need change much at all -- which is, no doubt, exactly the way he wants it. This is a guy, after all, who steadily opposed a surge throughout 2007 but today seemed seemed quite smug about declaring:

"The situation in Iraq has improved. Violence has been reduced substantially from the horrific sectarian killing of 2006 and 2007. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been dealt a serious blow by our troops and Iraq’s Security Forces, and through our partnership with Sunni Arabs. The capacity of Iraq’s Security Forces has improved, and Iraq’s leaders have taken steps toward political accommodation."

I have all kinds of problems with the speech. He also couldn't resist the urge to deliver one of his now-patented laundry lists of improbable promises:

...

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/stephanie_gutmann/blog/2009/02/28/what_a_former_law_professor_knows_about_war

[JohnnyReb]

"Mission Accomplished ....uh.....despite all I could do ......uh.....and in 2 years ....uh.....they'll only be 50,000 of you left.....uh...... in harms way.....uh....... the terrorist wanted better odds." CnC.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Mission Accomplished ....uh.....despite all I could do

That is precisely what punches my "Rage" button every time he talks about Iraq.  His discussions of the economy, on which he devoted a year to breaking public confidence, have a similar effect.