David Obey: 'Al Qaeda Out of Targets'; Old Media Apparently Out of Ink and Bandwidth

November 7th, 2007 8:25 AM

Just when you thought those holding on to the claim that the Iraq War is a failure had reached the intellectual bottom of the barrel, we get this from David Obey, as reported by Mike Soraghan at The Hill:

Terrorists are ‘running out of people to kill,’ says Obey

If violence is decreasing in Iraq, it may be because insurgents “are running out of people to kill,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) said Monday.

“There are fewer targets of opportunity,” Obey said in a speech to the National Press Club.

Obey was responding to a question about reports touted by Republicans that security is improving in Iraq and that President Bush’s “surge” strategy is working. He stressed that military success has not led to political reconciliation.

Unfortunately for Mr. Obey, there is this little tool known as Google Earth that enables us to check out the veracity of his statement.

This must be what David Obey thinks all of Iraq is like these days (pic is of a desert area east of Baghdad):

IraqDesertEofBaghdad

This is part of what the rest of us would refer to as "reality" (first pic is part of Baghdad; second pic is from the river in the first pic):

IraqPartOfBaghdad1007
BaghdadView1007

Given that tall buildings were Al Qaeda targets on September 11, 2001, I'd say that at least a few Al Qaeda targets remain.

The Wisconsin congressman's remarks should properly be seen as a slap at the US military. Clearly, in David Obey's world, our soldiers have been unable to prevent most of the "targets of opportunity" from being taken out, and most of the "people to kill" from being killed.

As you might expect, Obey's inanity, uttered Monday at the, ahem, National Press Club, is being ignored by Old Media:

GoogNewsObeyTargetKill1007

One hopes that David Obey's House seat isn't as safe as he must think it is.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.