OBAMA ARRIVES WITH THE CARPET BAGGERS:

Relative Stability Brings Opportunities for Foreign Investors (Wolfgang Reuter and Bernhard Zand, 7/22/08, Der Spiegel)

With state coffers brimming with that kind of cash, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has decided to head for Berlin this week. He aims to convince foreign companies -- and particularly German firms -- to join the reconstruction effort. And his overtures toward German industry are "more than just a courtesy in the run-up to a state visit," says German-Iraqi surgeon and Hanover resident Hassan al-Haddad from Hanover. Maliki recently involved Haddad in a plan to build 10 hospitals back in Iraq, each with 400 beds. The prime minister has called on Haddad to "find a German company that can really tackle this project." Maliki and his team are working intensively to nurture the delicate upswing that is taking place in Iraq -- now that a measure of stability and security has returned to the country.

Iraq simply does not have the resources to rebuild on its own, and this has prompted the government to woo foreign companies and investors along with engineers, petroleum industry experts and doctors, like Haddad. Slowly but surely, European and American companies are beginning to trust the incipient peace, although it is often shattered by bombings, like the one last Tuesday that left 33 people dead near Baghdad.

Although, bizarrely, Senator Obama opposes the policy that made this kibnd of development and his own visit possible, Obama Won't 'Rubber Stamp' Military Decisions (TERRY MORAN, MELINDA ARONS and KATIE ESCHERICH, July 21, 2008, ABC News)

Obama is seeing a vastly different Iraq than the one he saw when he last visited more than two years ago. Violence and American casualties are way down, and the streets of Baghdad are bustling again.

So far this month, five U.S. troops have been killed in combat, compared with 78 U.S. deaths last July. Attacks across the country are down more than 80 percent. Still, when asked if knowing what he knows now, he would support the surge, the senator said no.

"These kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult," he said. "Hindsight is 20/20. But I think that what I am absolutely convinced of is, at that time, we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with, and one that I continue to disagree with -- is to look narrowly at Iraq and not focus on these broader issues."

Which raises the question: why does he hate Iraqis?

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 22, 2008 8:44 AM