How can Obama say that, knowing what he knows now, he would still have opposed the surge?

Only someone wearing ideological blinkers could claim that the surge has not transformed the security situation in Iraq and provided the space necessary for political progress. So, it is depressing to see Obama claiming that – even knowing what he knows now, and after seeing the progress in Iraq at first hand, and being briefed by General Petraeus – he still would have opposed the surge if he had to go back in time and make the decision again (see video below). Indeed, Obama’s answer to this question displays his Bush-like quality of refusing to allow the changing facts on the ground in Iraq to influence his thinking.

Rather than admit that the counter-insurgency strategy has worked. Obama is reduced to arguing that “political factors inside Iraq that came right at the same time as terrific work by our troops. Had those political factors not occurred, my assessment would be correct.”