If Senator Obama had been around at the end of the Civil War, and applied the same logic to that conflict that he has in his recent comments on “the surge” in Iraq, he would have credited the end of the war to Robert E. Lee for having the Army of Northern Virginia stand down, and to slaves and slaveholders seeking peaceful resolution of their differences, instead of the determined military force of the armies of the north.

If you think about it, the trials of the Civil War are in many ways analogous to the Iraq war. In both cases the Presidents were eye-to-eye with the defeat of their policies due to poor planning and management, lost opportunities and poor, short-sighted leadership. It should also be sadly noted that in both cases the Democrat Party was working hard to insure defeat.

In both cases the Presidents perceived the need for a change in leadership and strategy. In President Lincoln’s case he found Generals Grant and Meade who crafted a strategy that turned the war around and ultimately broke the back of Confederate resistance.  In President Bush’s case he found General Petraeus, who created and led the surge strategy in Iraq that likewise turned the conflict around and has insured the accomplishment of the President’s goal of establishing a stable democratic government there.