Keith Olbermann discusses Obama's Iraq/Euro trip w/Hagel

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will visit Afghanistan and Iraq, accompanied by two potential running mates, according to a source familiar with details of the trip.

The overseas trip will give Obama an opportunity to talk at length with Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.). The two men have been mentioned as potential running mates because they would bolster the Democratic ticket's foreign policy and military credentials.
Though Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, is a Republican, he has not endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president. Hagel is now a leading critic of the Iraq war after voting for it in 2002.

Obama aides have spoken glowingly of Hagel, and the retiring senator has said he would consider the Democratic vice-presidential nomination if it was offered.

Reed, who voted against the war, is a West Point graduate and former Army paratrooper. He is less well-known than Hagel, but is considered a respected voice on defense matters.

Reed is also an expert on housing issues, which have grown in importance as the economy has soured, and he played a key role in the passage of the Senate foreclosure rescue bill.

Obama has long called Afghanistan "the right battlefield," asserting that President Bush left the war there unfinished in order to invade Iraq. Putting it on his itinerary allows the Democratic contender to highlight that point.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/o...
With Obama's visit to Iraq expected any day now, the Right is about to move into full belittlement mode. They'll attempt to trivialize, satirize, and diminish whatever occurs on this trip. So this is a good time to remember John McCain's last visit to Iraq, a visit that he now claims helped form his war policy.

In case you missed it, this week the media reported heavily on the way McCain "mocked" Obama for laying out an Iraq and Afghanistan policy before visiting the region - without reporting that McCain had also "laid out a policy" before his visit.

And how did that visit go? That's the one where McCain claimed he was able to move freely around town, where one of his Republican colleagues claimed that the market was "just like Indiana," and Lindsay Graham bought a rug for $20 that street vendors said later was worth about a dollar. (That's your GOP military procurement system for you.)

Remember those claims? And how the truth came out eventually? If not, here's a walk down memory lane:

The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees -- the equivalent of an entire company -- and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.

The market was shot up by snipers the next day, as a matter of fact, so it's a shame McCain didn't leave that bulletproof vest behind for some innocent civilian to use.

Somebody should ask McCain how that highly scripted visit, which eventually brought ridicule upon his campaign - and which cost the U.S. military a great deal of money and effort - helped define his current war policy. And whether it was representative of the way he plans to run the military.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-esko...