Have the Republican debates this year caught up with the number of times Obama has declared the Iraq war over yet? Just wondering.
Oh we love to kid the president about endlessly ending the war in Iraq, which killed possibly over a million, ruined a society, and scattered millions more — and which Panetta says has been “worth it” and Obama says is a “success”. But he really is trying to get away with simultaneously being seen as the opposite of the brash Bush and his embarrassing “Mission Accomplished” aircraft-carrier landing while having ceremony after press conference about how “he” ended the war in Iraq. Many so-somber memorials and paeans to “our men and women in uniform” — now with more gay! — are what statesmen do, see. Only a child acts like those reckless Republicans.
It’s an attitude that says image and demeanor is what’s important, instead of the plain fact that a country was obliterated, men were tortured and murdered, women were humiliated and widowed, children were scarred and irradiated. Obama’s smirk is seen as confident and reassuring, while Bush’s identical smirk was juvenile, needlessly provocative. But it was Obama who evaporated countless families in Pakistan for the crime of being in the way. Only Obama drone-murdered a US citizen who said mean things about America on YouTube and his 16-year-old son. But Obama didn’t talk about it, so it’s somehow statesmanship and not brutality.
Sorry to be such a downer, but in fact the war goes on, not least in Iraq where the prime minister seems to be consolidating Saddam-like power before the last US soldier even heads out, but also because there will be thousands of subcontracted mercenaries who remain. Yes, they’re armed, and Obama is fighting hard to exempt them from Iraqi law in case they commit some kind of mass civilian slaughter, say. And if it heats up too much, we got this — thousands of US troops will remain just across the border and around the Gulf region to pop by if necessary.
But don’t let that stop the ceremonies of choreographed sadness in front of soldiers — and more importantly, television cameras. There’s an election coming.
"killed possibly over a million"
*sigh*
I'm about to lose my temper over this incessant minimization coming from almost every corner.
The war didn't begin in 2003.
There are currently over 2 million Iraqi War Widows.
Half a Million Iraqi children died from our sanctions alone.
Get your heads out of your asses. America's wars have always killed Millions of human beings. Just ask the Vietnamese.
An excellent post.
“sigh”
I’m about to lose my temper over the incessant crowing of how Obama ended the war.
With what is essentially a military fortress the size of a small city filled with military personnel and god knows what else including 5,000 mercenaries, thugs by any other name, it is laughable to say the war there has ended as the violence continues. With ten thousand US soldiers massed in Kuwait that we have left is a sad joke.
This was a very refreshing post so keep up the good work and don’t mind the Obama apologists, they probably just have indigestion from eating Iraqi babies.
but hey look! still not an empire! http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/12/16…
I wonder if Obama will take credit for "regime change" in North Korea too. I wonder if ‘PolitiFact.com’ will support this claim as well.
I'm almost certain Mr. Obama & company concluded the political fallout of leaving the troops in Iraq without immunity would be much worse than the political fallout risks associated with pulling most of the troops out of Iraq. I'm also almost certain they concluded leaving the troops in Iraq, and ignoring the will of the current Iraqi regime, would create all sorts of problems—including, but not limited to, exposing the bleeding heart talking point that the US is/was “bringing/brought freedom to the Iraqi people” as the complete joke/delusional fantasy it is/was.
There is a fundamental difference between getting booted and voluntarily leaving…and Mr. Obama’s “choice” was not one of design (as the ‘end’ of the war had already been declared)—and the troops will still remain, just like the ‘first time’ the Iraq war was declared “ended” by Mr. Obama….