Krauthammer Admits, “Obama was likely to be president anyway.”

I am no fan of Charles Krauthammer. In fact, I find his commentary arrogant, extremely partisan, faulty, and, did I mention arrogant?

However, his most recent column in the Washington Post, “Maliki Votes for Obama,” was a rare exception.

In fact, Krauthammer was nearly one hundred percent accurate and truthful.

First, he admits what many right-wingers have been loath to admit: that Obama is right on his plan for U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, and that Maliki “not once but several times expressed support for a U.S. troop withdrawal on a timetable that accorded roughly with Obama’s 16-month proposal.”

Second, Krauthammer admits that “McCain, like George Bush, envisions the United States seizing the fruits of victory” in Iraq, such as:

by establishing an extensive strategic relationship that would not only make the new Iraq a strong ally in the war on terror but would also provide the U.S. with the infrastructure and freedom of action to project American power regionally, as do U.S. forces in Germany, Japan and South Korea.

For example, we might want to retain an air base to deter Iran, protect regional allies and relieve our naval forces, which today carry much of the burden of protecting the Persian Gulf region, thus allowing redeployment elsewhere.

Personally, I would have said, “we might want to retain an airbase or forty….” But other than that, Krauthammer is accurate. No mention of the tired, disingenuous mantra of WMD, mushroom cloud, yellowcake from Niger, irrefutable links to Al-Qaeda, imminent threat, getting rid of a despot, establishing a shining democracy, etc.

Just the good old American objectives of “projecting power,” “making new, strong allies,” “protecting regional allies.” I just wish that Bush had been forthcoming on these objectives from the very beginning. He may have had more support for his adventure.

Finally, Krauthammer admits, “Obama was likely to be president anyway. He is likelier now.”

I said at the beginning that Krauthammer was nearly one hundred percent accurate and truthful. He would have been one hundred percent right if he had included just one more little word in his essay: “oil.”