OBAMA Fires Back At GOP Blaming HIM Rather Than Themselves For Instability In Iraq

[kpete]

Obama........ responded to Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who blamed Obama for the current instability in Iraq.

"I’m very clear on the lessons of Iraq. I think it was a mistake for us to go in in the first place, despite the incredible efforts that were made by our men and women in uniform," Obama responded. "Despite that error, those sacrifices allowed the Iraqis to take back their country. That opportunity was squandered by Prime Minister Maliki and the unwillingness to reach out effectively to the Sunni and Kurdish populations."

.........................


Obama said he is committed to assisting Iraqi security forces to help them secure and stabilize the country.

"But we can’t do it for them, and one of the central flaws I think of the decision back in 2003 was the sense that if we simply went in and deposed a dictator, or simply went in and cleared out the bad guys, that somehow peace and prosperity would automatically emerge, and that lesson we should have learned a long time ago," he told The Atlantic.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-republicans-iraq-war-mistakes

[randys1]

1. The fucking NERVE of war criminals to blame Obama

makes me real angry

[delrem]

2. The destruction of Iraq was a terrible thing.

The destruction of Libya was a terrible thing.
The ongoing attempt to totally destroy Syria is a terrible thing.

All of these terrible things are of a single PNAC piece, and all of these terrible things have created the current situation. A fully bipartisan effort (from the start!) got the ME into this horrible situation, and it doesn't help a damn thing to blame it entirely on W., who is now long gone.

It didn't have to be this way. The US people voted for change, and the ME "War on Terror" was one thing very much on people's minds. They didn't just mean that they were hoping Obama would "evolve" on LGBT issues, etc. They didn't get that change. In fact, Obama put Hillary Clinton into place as SoS, and Hillary immediately hired Dick Cheney's principal deputy foreign policy adviser, just as if she hadn't learned a single thing, not a single solitary thing. And so it goes.

[WDIM]

3. Every congressman and senator that voted for the iraq war

Should be brought up on war crime charges.

Every cabinet member of the Bush Regime. George W Bush and Dick Chaney they are all war criminals. They were war criminals then and they are war criminals now.

The repercussions of this war that never should of been fought are more vast then we even realize. There is a lost generation in Iraq now that knows nothing but war death violence destruction heartache and loss.

The Bush Regime and his cheerleaders for war are all responsible because they all pushed this country to war. And they all began a war that has no end. Instead of the people fighting against their dictator they are fighting against what they see as outside oppressors.

Ousting a dictator is good in theory but without the will of the people to oust their own dictators an outside force trying to impose another regime only meets with chaos and violence and prolonged war.

15 year olds cant even remember what it was like to live without war. The average age of the isis recruit 15 to 25 years old the children of the Iraq war. Do the math.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. K&R Repukes are just pissed because they're not getting a Halliburton kickback from Cheney anymore

[Dawson Leery]

5. The un-elected Bush made the disaster in the middle east.

[freshwest]

6. He's 100% correct on this, as he has been all along. Thanks for finding this one. n/t

[brush]

7. We need to get out — the Muslims have to fix it themselves

Our presence only inflames the situation. The Sunnis and the Shia have been at each other's throats since Muhammad died thousands of years ago in terms of who was to be his successor.

Who are we to back anyway, the Sunnis or the Shia? If we back either sect the other is your enemy. That's a no-win situation.

I say we need to let the Muslims have their religious civil war just as Christianity and Judaism have had their multiple and violent schisms throughout history.

We can at best be neutral 'honest brokers' in perhaps helping to negotiate peace/borders/disputes.

They have to fix it themselves.

IMO Obama's foreign policy in the Middle East HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN NOT COMMITTING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TROOPS THERE.

Too some, not putting American lives at risk again in Iraq and Syria is somehow a failure.

Bush/Cheney/Bremer backed the Shia, got rid of the Ba'aths (Sunni), fired their military who reformed as ISIS when Maliki and the Shia shut them out of any role in postwar Iraq.

ISIS captured such huge swaths of land so quickly because their leaders are professional solders, the ex- generals and colonels of the fired Iraqi army.

Some successful policy Bush/Cheney had there. I don't blame Obama for not emulating it. We need to stay out but some are beating the war drums louder and louder and although he's resisting, we're slowly being drawn back into it.

Guess the warmongers won't be happy until more Americans are dying there.

[delrem]

8. I don't like this post.

It targets "muslims", and in effect blames the victim of US war crimes. It is self-serving for the US war machine that created a hell on earth for the people of the ME.

Human beings have been at war forever, Europeans have been at war forever, Asians, and all peoples, but war hasn't given us civilization or anything good. To blame the current situation in the ME on "The Sunnis and the Shia have been at each other's throats since Muhammad died thousands of years ago" is a warmonger's meme and totally disrespects Muslims, and exonerates the USA which entered into a war of choice against Iraq, then Libya, then Syria, totally destroying the social and physical infrastructure of those countries and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people, pumping $billions and even $trillions of weapons into the area along with mercenary armies, and continues to wage war in Afghanistan, and is expanding the scope of its war-making machinery to Yemen, Somalia,... on and on with no stop. No change in direction whatever from D to R to D to R administration.

I think the US should change direction - away from the war profiteering MIC agenda and toward a sustainable people-first agenda that wins the hearts of the world by peaceful means. Not by bombing fuck out of everyone who sits on a patch of ground that has resources that the US covets.

Just my opinion and I stand by my right to say it.

[Fred Sanders]

9. I agree with you, the post is deflective of American responsibility and European imperialism.

[brush]

12. What does that mean?

Are you advocating we go back to war in the Middle East?

I suggested we act as "honest brokers" to assist in negotiating peace, border disputes and whatever other assistance we can offer to tamp down tensions and sectarian rivalry without sending troops ourselves.

What are you saying we should do?

Be clear.

I for one marched and demonstrated in NYC and Wash. DC in 2003 against the was so I certainly don't want us going back in there again with massive amounts of troops.

[delrem]

14. It's all over DU.

The level of denial amazes me.
Esp. the pretence that the PNAC WoT isn't still going on, accelerated, and that the D's are blameless for the consequences.

I do think the deniers are honest - they honestly believe that the US war machine intends to bring "democracy and freedom and western values" to the countries it bombs to extinction. They honestly haven't thought about it in a "put yourself in their shoes" way, or just in a somewhat reasonably objective way (what would happen to *any* country whose social and physical infrastructure was totally destroyed by a malignant outside force which is unrelenting and continuous, and which has *no* concept of a peaceful outcome because they only care about acquiring the natural resources. Wouldn't the people of *any* country beset by such an oppressive enemy turn to their religious roots - the only social structure they have left?).

[brush]

11. My post advocates the US getting out and not "bombing the fuck out of everyone" as you put it

Did you not get that?

And you know as well as I do that there have been wars in the Middle East long before the Iraq war. The Shia/Sunni conflict is no secret. My pointing that out is not anti-Muslim, it's just pointing out undeniable reality.

I'm advocating letting the people in the Middle East fix it themselves with Europeans, Americans, Russian — everyone else staying out of it — no more bombs, no drones, no troops on the ground, no occupation.

Are you against that? You want us taking sides?

We took sides and deposed the strong man Saddam and look what resulted.

Which side should we take that won't anger the other side?

IMO we should get out, let the countries in the Middle East solve their own problems and that is not blaming anyone.

[delrem]

13. I think I perfectly understood your post, which exonerates the US

and blames "muslims" for the current situation.
As if the current ME situation wasn't the product of US foreign policy.

So, when did you learn about the difference between "Sunni and Shia Muslims"?
Was that before or after you learned about how these "muslims" were barbarians who don't like the US for it's freedoms, and that's why the US's democracy/freedom creating efforts in the ME didn't take?

[brush]

15. You're completely misinterpreting my posts

I marched against the Iraq war in NYC and Washington DC in 2003.

I did not want us in there and I abhor what the Cheney/Bush did in Iraq.

And by the way, the conflicts in the Middle East long pre-date Cheney/Bush foreign policy.

You're barking up the wrong tree by suggesting that I'm anti-Muslim. And how is it anti-Muslim to advocate that Muslims settle their own differences.

Are you saying that the only ones capable of solving conflicts in the region are people from outside the region?

[delrem]

17. Bullshit. Iraq's destruction does not pre-date US aggression.

What did the US call it? "Shock and Awe". Pure terror.

[brush]

18. I'm not denying that

I was and am against the US fighting in Iraq.

You're arguing with the wrong person.

And I do recollect the long war between Iraq and Iran which did a lot of damage to both countries. As I said before,

conflicts have been going on in the region long before the Bush/Cheney/Rumfeld wargmongers came in.

[delrem]

21. Yes, conflicts have happened, in the world, before the Bush/Cheney/Rumfeld wargmongers came in.

So I'll give you that trite point.

[brush]

22. This is pointless. I'm done. nt

[delrem]

23. "We can at best be neutral 'honest brokers' in perhaps helping to negotiate peace/borders/disputes"

he says.

[Cha]

10. "I’m very clear on the lessons of Iraq. I think it was a mistake for us to go in in the first

place.."

Thanks kpete

[delrem]

16. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: ISIS

Exactly who is it that decided "regime change" in Syria would be a great move?
Does that count?

Nah. I didn't think so.

[Cha]

19. Your gibberish has nothing to do with the OP or my post.

[delrem]

20. I didn't think you'd have any concern whatsoever

for the fallout of US war against Syria. Or Libya.

How could there be a connection????
No way!