The spin is dizzying
I got an email yesterday from the Obama campaign trupeting the President’s latest triumph – the end of the war in Iraq;
Yesterday, we accomplished one major change when President Obama announced that all American troops in Iraq will be home before the holidays.
With that action, the Iraq war will end. And one of the President’s central promises will have been kept.
Both as Americans and as supporters of President Obama, this is something for us to reflect on, and be proud of.:
Yeah, it would be a triumph, except for a couple of points – first of all, it was the Bush Administration that negotiated the withdrawal.
Secondly, during the campaign Obama promised that the US would be out of Iraq in 16 months after he took office – so here we are 34 months after he took office.
Third, the only reason that troops will be out of Iraq by Christmas only because the Obama Administration was unable to negotiate successfully a Status Of Forces Agreement with Iraq which would protect US forces there…an agreement that every administration since World War II has been able to negotiate with host nations for their own protection.
So with the resurgence of Mookie al Sadr looming and the continued interference in Iraqi security by Iran, we’re supposed to be prooud that our troops are all withdrawing so we can return to iraq in several years when it all goes to shit.
Category: Terror War
GO! THE ALL BLACKS! LOL!
The SOFA was concluded during the Bush Administration. I vaguely understand people’s need to reflexively blame one’s political foes for anything and everything that occurs on the planet, but blaming the Obama Administration for not keeping US forces in Iraq is an ignorance of what was in our span of control and ignorance of the state of Iraqi politics.
The current SOFA was signed during the Bush administration. SInce the mission has changed, we require an updated SOFA, which our State Department was unable to accomplish. They were probably too busy trying to work out another nuke treaty with North Korea that will be broken as soon as they get their food.
@3 – “SInce the mission has changed, we require an updated SOFA, which our State Department was unable to accomplish.”
Can you expand on that? What mission changed?
Last Sep, the military mission in Iraq changed from combat operation (Operation Iraqi Freedom)to supporting Iraqi forces (Operation New Dawn).
Of course it did. This was all part of the original SOFA agreement, along with the current timeline being adhered to.
haha.. My favorite part is how you give Bush credit for negotiating the withdrawal during his presidency; but you neatly leave out WHO GOT YOU OVER THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE..
You do, of course, remember how this war started?
Yeah, i know who got us into Iraq, Anon, you pompous dolt. It was Hussein who was sponsoring terrorism worldwide, threatening his neighbors and developing weapons of mass destruction. I predicted our invasion of Iraq twelve years before when we abruptly ended the first Gulf War before it was finished.
The upside to the Obama administration doing all this crowing about how Obama ended the war in Iraq is that when things go to hell in Iraq next year, the fault for losing Iraq will clearly belong to Obama.
Anonymous at 8:14 a.m.
I take it from your comment that you lack any sort of historical perspective which isn’t in the current spin cycle or which doesn’t support your flavor of politics.
But if I may take the liberty to answer your vague question, I’ll say: the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.
[…] This ain’t Hell…. enjoys the Obama admin’s spin on leaving Iraq […]
What Obama DIDN’T mention (From what I am hearing) is that most of these troops won’t “be home for the holidays” – they will merely be moved to Kuwait.
Any bets on how long it will take for them to spiral to the point that we need to retake the country for them again? My bet? Late 2015. I feel like an optimist with that one.
@ #13 if that’s the case we need to have that invasion end in Iran.
@RobD From both Iraq & A-stan
@ Tim agreed.
Hell, why don’t they just bring all the troops home from overseas. We can go back to dropping bombs and shooting mislliles at the bad guys and not use ground troops. That were so damned well before 9/11.
Meant: That worked so damn well before 9/11. End of sarcasm.
You know I read a good Op-ed that said America not only won the war once, but twice. Once in ’03 when they bitch slapped Sadam, and once in ’07-’08 when the “Surge” troops won against sectarian violence.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/21/obama-ignores-that-us-won-in-iraq-twice/
what really scares me is that this is not a “till the Job’s done” mentality anymore. I know there’s a pattern to DeMob as fast as possible, but don’t you think, seeing as Iran is acting the fool, having a strong presence, or at least one that can defend itself if needed, would be, I dunno IMPORTANT? Its not like we needed to go back a little more than 10 years after the first time. I’m sure that we won’t need to go back there at all
Agreed Doc. Whatever happened to that whole concept of train to standard not to time anyways? I think Obama just shot himself in the foot. Again.
Unfortunately, the Obama wounds are not nearly as painful and debilitating as the real ones our troops have suffered, and may well suffer again should we be forced to go back a THIRD time for not finishing the job.
According to the AP, which seems to be one of the unofficial spokesmen for the regime, “Obama kept a campaign promise to end the war, and al-Maliki will have ended the American presence and restored Iraqi sovereignty.”. So, I guess we’re not leaving because the Iraqis are trained up, and Iran is no threat, we’re leaving so Obama can keep a campaign promise.
Well, picture me surprised.
The Iraqis could have offered no prosecutions, free gas and we still wouldn’t have stayed, that wasn’t the objective, the objective was to get out prior to ’12.
Make no mistake, everything this guy does is an attempt to secure a 2nd term. That’s al he gives a shit about.
It’s the only “created or saved” job he’ll actually be able to take credit for if he does.
And if he does, we as a nation are well and truly fucked.
Obama and his anti-America base renew their vows with this announcement. The withdrawal was already in the works; and worse: lots of usable (against us) stuff is being abandoned to whomever will sell/give it to AQ and its sister organizations.
Next he’ll announce our withdrawal from Libya and Uganda.