Dem: Bush deserves partial credit for success in Iraq

President George W. Bush deserves some credit for the transition away from a combat mission in Iraq, Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) said Tuesday.

Baird, a centrist who supported the surge when Bush first made the proposal, told MSNBC the change in mission to be marked Tuesday by President Obama was "worthy of giving President Bush credit," along with Gen. David Petraeus and former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker. 

Baird, fresh off a trip to Iraq, also said the troop surge was "absolutely worth it."

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) likewise praised the former Republican president for the "courageous decision" to increase troop levels in Iraq in 2007, when it was hardly popular to do so. 

"The remarkable turnaround in Iraq is due to many factors, but it would not have been possible without the courageous decision of President Bush to launch the surge in 2007 — initiating a set of policies that President Obama, to his great credit, has sustained and built upon to bring us to this day," Lieberman said Tuesday in a statement.

The praise for Bush comes as Obama prepares an Oval Office address this evening, his second, to mark the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the departure of U.S. combat troops. Some 50,000 troops will remain in a support capacity.

Obama is set to call Bush on Tuesday before delivering the address, but the White House did not say this morning whether the president would offer praise for predecessor in the speech.

"I think the president will talk about the situation in Iraq, thank the president for his service, for his love of country. And I think they'll have a nice private, quiet conversation about what's going on in the world," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said of that call during an appearance on Fox news. But Gibbs was much more coy as to whether Bush would receive public recognition.

Obama, as a senator and presidential candidate, had opposed the surge and argued for the need of an increased diplomatic presence alongside any ramped-up military action in order to wind down the war in Iraq.

Obama's opposition to the surge at the time is a focal point of Republican criticism of the administration, in a series of concerted "prebuttals" to Obama's address.

"Some leaders who opposed, criticized, and fought tooth-and-nail to stop the surge strategy now proudly claim credit for the results," House GOP leader John Boehner (Ohio) will say during a speech to the American Legion in Milwaukee. "[T]oday we mark not the defeat those voices anticipated — but progress."