Judgment to... errr... uhm... well... waffle?

01-10-07: "I am not persuaded... that... 20,000 additional troops in Iraq... uh... is gonna solve the sectarian violence there, in fact, I think it'll do the reverse."

07-18-07: "My assessment is that the surge has not worked."

11-11-07: "I would end this war and I would have our troops out within 16 months."

03-19-08: "I will immediately begin to remove our troops."

07-03-08: Reporter: "...does that mean you will not change the 16-month [withdrawal] timetable?"

Obama: "Eh... uh... I... uh..."

07-08-08: "I did not anticipate... the convergence of not only the surge but the Sunni awakening in which a whole host of Sunni tribal leaders decided that they had had enough with Al Qaeda... So what you had is a combination of political factors inside of Iraq that then came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, I think that my assessment would have been correct."

07-20-08: [ABC's Terry Moran]: "...the surge of U.S. troops, combined with ordinary Iraqis' rejection of both al Qaeda and Shiite extremists have transformed the country. Attacks are down more than 80% nationwide. U.S. combat casualties have plummeted, five this month so far, compared with 78 last July, and Baghdad has a pulse again.' If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you -- would you support the surge?"

Obama: "No, because -- keep in mind that -" Moran: "You wouldn't?" Obama: "Well, no, keep -- these kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult . Hindsight is 20/20. I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that 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."

Moran: "And so, when pressed, Barack Obama says he still would have opposed the surge."

I wonder what the troops think of Obama's leadership skills?