The good war in Iraq

I just got around to reading the transcript of Joe Biden’s appearance on Larry King Live. It’s priceless:

I am very optimistic about -- about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.

I spent -- I've been there 17 times now. I go about every two months -- three months. I know every one of the major players in all of the segments of that society. It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.

This is the same Joe Biden who told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in 2007 that neither Hilary Clinton nor Barack Obama was fit to be president because:

Look, the fundamental disagreement I have with my colleagues up here [Ms Clinton and Mr Obama] is that they seem to cling to the fundamental strategic mistake that everyone on both sides plays to, and that is that there is any possibility in the lifetime of anyone here of having the Iraqis get together, have a unity government in Baghdad that pulls the country together.

That will not happen, George. It will not happen in the lifetime of anyone here.

During the 2008 campaign, Messrs Obama and Biden argued that the good war in Afghanistan had been scanted because of the demands of the bad war in Iraq. Now that Mr Bush’s “surge” in Iraq has proved to be a qualified success, while the ‘Stan has gone from bad to worse, Mr. Biden has simply switched the wars around: Iraq good, Afghanistan bad. Worse, it's even possible he believes it. Blue skies! – Dan Ford