Sen Barack Obama Requests Delay in Troop Drawdown

"WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence. According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July. "
SEN. BARACK OBAMA WANTS TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ, BUT WANTS A DELAY IN NEGOTIATIONS FOR REMOVAL - New York Post:

Iraqi Surge Was Keystone to Success in Iraq

"At the end of 2006, Iraq seemed on the verge of a civil war. Al-Qaida was inciting divisions between Sunni and Shiia Iraqis. The newly elected government seemed ineffectual. Militia groups roamed neighborhoods and intimidated those who did not agree with them.
More than 100 U.S. servicemembers per month were being killed in fighting in the country. Today, that number has dropped dramatically, thanks largely to the troop surge and a new strategy that senior military officials credit with laying the groundwork for success throughout Iraq."
...

The first of the surge brigades arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in January
2007 – the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team. The soldiers went
almost immediately into combat operations. Between then and June, four more
brigades, a Marine expeditionary unit and two Marine battalions deployed to
Iraq. Thousands of “enablers” – combat service and combat service support
servicemembers – also deployed.

...
“The surge allowed us to get control of areas, maintain control using Iraqi troops and police, and pump money and jobs into the economy,” the general said. “It helped us link up with the sheiks and tribal leaders and push the Awakening process along.”
In many parts of Baghdad today, markets are operating, doctors are practicing, children are learning and fathers are working. That would have been inconceivable in 2006, Campbell said.
“I saw the surge in the beginning, and when I left in December 2007 I had seen it turn Baghdad around,” he said. “The surge was very successful and I could see the results. I would have told you maybe halfway into my tour that I would not have felt good about leaving. But later, I saw all the benefits. I thought we really gave the Iraqi people a fighting chance.”


Iraqi Surge Was Keystone to Success in Iraq:

Dems trash U.S. flags at DNC convention

Dems trash U.S. flags at DNC convention: "Following their national convention in Denver last week, Democratic organizers heaped up thousands of unused U.S. flags and threw them away, but the McCain campaign has since salvaged the Star-Spangled Banners and intends to use them at a rally in Colorado Springs.
A Denver Post blog reports that a worker at Denver's Invesco Field discovered the discarded flags following Barack Obama's nomination speech at the mile-high stadium last week."

According to Fox News, McCain is planning a scathing chastisement of the
Democrats for defiling Old Glory and plans to have veterans distribute the flags
in a symbolic, recyling gesture at the Colorado Springs rally.

The Post blog reports an estimated total of 12,000 small flags and one, full-size 3'x5' flag were discarded.

Update from Denverpost.com 9-6-08
Update: I just spoke with the person at Invesco who found the flags. He thinks both sides are exaggerating a bit. He claims the majority of the bags with flags were near the trash and it was probably an "oversight" by the Democrats rather than a nefarious plot against the flag, but he doesn't believe anyone was coming to get them. "The flags were there for a week and a day and no one came looking for them," the person said.