Ironically, during an interview with Olbermann on January 10, 2007, Obama had expressed his view that "I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse." And in another irony, on Tuesday's show, Olbermann lambasted Sean Hannity as having "fantastically poor short-term memory" during the show's "Worst Person" segment because Hannity denied that anyone at FNC had suggested Obama was a Muslim, without mentioning that some FNC personalities had pushed stories about the possibility Obama had a Muslim background during childhood.
In the same interview with Olbermann from 2007, Obama had also cited similar views by Republican Senator Sam Brownback as if to add credibility to his own beliefs: "Sam Brownback issued a press release today from Baghdad, saying, based on having met with the Iraqi government leadership, he does not have confidence that additional troops would make a difference, and he's going to oppose it."
And, as compiled at powerlineblog.com, Obama made several other statements predicting that the troop surge would be unsuccessful in changing the situation in Iraq. On the January 14, 2007, Face the Nation on CBS, Obama asserted: "We cannot impose a military solution on what has effectively become a civil war. And until we acknowledge that reality, we can send 15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops. I don't know any expert on the region or any military officer that I've spoken to privately that believe that that is going to make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground."
On the July 18, 2007, Today show on NBC, Obama expressed his view that the surge had been and would continue to be unsuccessful: "My assessment is that the surge has not worked and we will not see a different report eight weeks from now."
Even while Olbermann seemed to admit that the troop surge had led to a reduction of violence against Iraqis, the Countdown host saw no contradiction later in the show in expressing sentiment in favor of a troop withdrawal while at the same time lamenting the large number of Iraqis who have been killed. During the show's "Bushed!" segment, during which the Countdown host claims to update viewers on Bush administration scandals, Olbermann tagged President Bush as "President 'You Killed My Cousin.'"
After relaying to viewers information from Bob Woodward's latest book that President Bush was supposedly surprised that Iraqis were not more grateful to America for deposing Saddam Hussein, Olbermann analyzed the situation from what the MSNBC host called "the perspective of an Iraqi." Olbermann: "Try to take this all in from the perspective of an Iraqi. Somebody invades our nation, deposes our dictator, many innocent civilians die. From our point-of-view, not the best outcome imaginable, but maybe the best one available. Within six weeks, the guy leading the invasion even declares 'Mission Accomplished,' so we all start looking at our watches and waiting for these people to leave. And they don't. For five years. As terrorists pour across our porous borders, and militias and gangs and sects get all the weapons they could want, and thousands upon thousands of us are killed -- maybe 100,000, maybe more -- and two million people have to leave their homes or even leave the country. And five years later, having still not left, the chowderhead running the invading country is expecting us to send him a big card we've all signed saying, 'Thank you, President "You Killed My Cousin."'"
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Tuesday, September 9, Countdown show on MSNBC:
8:24 p.m.
BARACK OBAMA: Well, you know, it's interesting. It's not just the conservative media. I think that a lot of the mainstream media has picked up on this. Partly, I think, it is a legitimate surprise on the part of a lot of people that the immediate violence went down so significantly. And I think our troops deserve all the credit in the world for that happening, along with the Sunni awakening that occurred, the Shia militias standing down. There was a convergence of forces that have reduced violence in a way that I think many of us didn't anticipate, including me.
What has not changed at all is the underlying fact that, number one, Iraq was a huge strategic blunder that strengthened Iran, took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan, let al-Qaeda off the hook, and we've got to make a strategic shift. The second thing that hasn't changed is the Iraqi government still hasn't taken responsibility, that they aren't spending their own oil revenues. They've got $80 billion parked in New York banks while we're spending $10 billion a month. And I believe, and continue to believe, that until we send a clear signal that we are going to withdraw in a phased, systematic way, that they're not going to start getting their act together.
Now, Prime Minister Maliki has suggested that a timetable now makes sense. Even the Bush administration has been discussing a time horizon. John McCain is the only guy who still is trying to figure out ways to stay, instead of ways for us to go. And it is important for us to understand that, unless we start putting more responsibility in the hands of the Iraqis, we are going to be hamstrung in dealing with the larger battle against terror that is so critical to our long-term security.
...8:27 p.m.
OLBERMANN: And number one: "Gratitude-Gate." More from Woodward's book. He told 60 Minutes on Sunday night of Mr. Bush's frustration with the attitude of the Iraqi people. Quoting Woodward: "He has a meeting at the Pentagon with a bunch of experts, and he just said, 'I don't understand that the Iraqis are not appreciative of what we've done for them.' His beacon is liberation, he thinks we've done this magnificent thing for them, I think he still holds to that position."Try to take this all in from the perspective of an Iraqi. Somebody invades our nation, deposes our dictator, many innocent civilians die. From our point-of-view, not the best outcome imaginable, but maybe the best one available. Within six weeks, the guy leading the invasion even declares "Mission Accomplished," so we all start looking at our watches and waiting for these people to leave. And they don't. For five years. As terrorists pour across our porous borders, and militias and gangs and sects get all the weapons they could want, and thousands upon thousands of us are killed -- maybe 100,000, maybe more -- and two million people have to leave their homes or even leave the country. And five years later, having still not left, the chowderhead running the invading country is expecting us to send him a big card we've all signed saying, "Thank you, President 'You Killed My Cousin.'"
...8:50 p.m.
