Jazz Shaw
Hot Air
8/10/2014
We may as well finish up the weekend on yet another inexplicable appearance by the Commander in Chief. And this one is a doozy, picked up by Joel Gehrke at The Corner. The President, during his brief, pre-tee off time availability this weekend, chose to address what a mess Iraq currently is and whether or not our lack of presence there had anything to do with it. Well, it did, but it obviously wasn’t his fault. He never really wanted to leave in the first place.
President Obama refused to take responsibility for the lack of U.S. troops in Iraq, saying that American soldiers had to pull out due to political pressure from Iraqi leaders.
“This issue keeps on coming up as if this was my decision,” Obama retorted when asked if he had any second thoughts, in light of the terrorist force taking over regions of Iraq, about having pulled all American troops out of the country. “The reason that we did not have a follow-on force in Iraq was because a majority of Iraqis did not want U.S. troops there and politically they could not pass the kind of laws that would be required to protect our troops in Iraq,” he said.
Now, normally if we wanted to refute a statement like this, we might have to go to Fox News or some conservative bastion of record keeping to find some supporting evidence. But in this case, why don’t we go straight to the horse’s mouth…
The article continues at HotAir.com
Related: Hillary Clinton attacks foreign policy she helped create and implement
If Hillary Clinton is going to claim her time as secretary of State as an argument in her favor for a presidential run in 2016, then she is going to have a hard time criticizing the administration for policies that she played a role in developing.
‘JV’ terrorists? Obama under fire for having ‘underestimated’ militant threat in Iraq, Syria (video)
…In the time since extremist factions began organizing against Syria’s Bashar Assad, posing a challenge to more moderate forces seeking his removal, the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) has steadily expanded its territory into next-door Iraq.
The group made significant gains earlier this year, first taking over Fallujah and most recently tearing through the country’s second-largest city, Mosul.
After Fallujah fell, Obama gave his nonchalant response to The New Yorker, saying: “The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.”…
Bombs Over Erbil (video). Obama Took Credit for Iraq Troop Withdrawal Before Ducking Responsibility
…Obama tried to draw a clear distinction between himself and Republican Mitt Romney in 2012 by clearly stating he didn’t want to have leave any troops in Iraq at all:
“With regards to Iraq, you and I agreed, I believe, that there should be a status of forces agreement,” Romney told Obama as the two convened on the Lynn University campus in Boca Raton, Fla., that October evening. ”That’s not true,” Obama interjected. “Oh, you didn’t want a status of forces agreement?” Romney asked as an argument ensued. “No,” Obama said. “What I would not have done is left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down. That certainly would not help us in the Middle East.”
What was a popular line in 2012 is now something Obama would have people believe he couldn’t control…
Mitt Romney Was Completely Right About Iraq (video)
…During the 2012 election, Barack Obama was eager to win a second term, so eager that he politicized the war in Iraq and promised to bring troops home in order to win a few extra brownie points with liberal voters.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney, his opponent, believed pulling troops out of Iraq would be a huge mistake, predicting that Iraqi military forces were not yet strong enough to repel attacks and advancements made by radical Islamist groups.
Romney was scoffed at for such a notion, and was labeled a “war hawk” for wanting ground troops to remain in the region…
…The president said this in a tweet in October of 2012:
FACT: President Obama kept his promise to end the war in Iraq. Romney called the decision to bring our troops home “tragic.”
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 22, 2012…
