WHY WERE WE EVER IN IRAQ?

[JoePhilly]

53. He actually got us out on a time table very similar to the one he ran on.

Reducing from 140,000 to about 40,000 in 19 months (he ran on 16 months).

The rest, he said, would remain in non-combat roles, and exit after training the Iraqis, in a staged withdraw.

You might recall that as a candidate, he said .... "We must be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in".

And then, not only did he say this as a candidate, almost immediately after winning the election his transition team published this statement:

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month -- which would remove all of them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 -- more than 7 years after the war began.

Under the Obama-Biden plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. They will not build permanent bases in Iraq, but will continue efforts to train and support the Iraqi security forces as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism."

http://change.gov/agenda/iraq_agenda/

Bottom line ... anyone who acts confused about what Obama's Iraq exit plan was, clearly was not paying attention.