Monday, June 16, 2014

Iraq in chaos

Muslim militias have been seizing city after city in Iraq. They haven't taken Baghdad or much US-funded military equipment yet, but they could. I'm not sure where it will end up, especially for a country with so strong a secular tradition coming under militant Muslim rule.

The whole thing worries me more than Ukraine did/does. Freepers should be worried too, lest this proof of NeoCon failure redound to the GOP. Luckily for them, they're too busy justifying for themselves why Obama is to blame for going into Iraq to worry about politics.

lacrew explains that you need to forget Bush entirely:
Things have to be viewed from the time Barry took office.

It doesn’t matter who got us into Iraq or why. Barry’s decisions should be evaluated based on the situation in front of him, on Jan 20, 2009....which was a fairly stable Iraq, with an army being trained, elections being held, etc.
tbw2 actually blames the Bergdahl affair for the violence:
Obama trades 5 top Taliban leaders for one deserter. And pretty much capitulates on terrorism by releasing others, too, from Afghan prisons.

Within a month, a terrorist group that hardly had an impact in Iraq takes over a large swath of a country that managed two separate elections and handover of government from one president to another - something Afghanistan has yet to achieve.

Obama’s total weakness led to the loss of a nation Bush won.
Williams - liberals all love losing wars.
Even if it’s not his fault, it’s his responsibility.

What has he done with that responsibility?

Folks, I’m amazed if people don’t understand that because of their backgrounds, Obama, Kerry and Hagel, all WANT to lose in Iraq.

That is what they insisted on in Vietnam. Liberals are sick.
Williams also blames Bush for not invading more countries:
The only “fault” of Bush is that when we had everything in the world in Iraq, he should have taken out Syria as well and done the hard work. Also should have pressured the hell out of Iran and maybe reduced their nuke and other capabilities.

But yes, if Obama wasn’t a cowardly leftist who can’t consider helping Iraq, none of this would have been necessary. He easily could have taken lots of actions to prevent this, from a continued US presence, to effective action in Syria.
blueunicorn6 blames Obama for doing things beyond Iraq.
Obama has had, what, 172 golf days since he took office?

Iraq is falling apart, and Obama is so concerned that he goes to a high school graduation and tells everyone how bad the Republicans are.

Golf and gab......that’s what you get from Obama.
Yorlik803 has some damning math:
Obama Cant Blame Bush for this any longer. He owns this one. Something like 75% of wounded and dead Americans happened after Obama took office. And Obama don’t care. He really is a sad person.
Logical me proclaims Obama a King in the same sentence he wants him impeached...
Yes the violence must now be blamed on King Obama. This blood bath is directly charged to his withdrawal of our troops. King Obama must be impeached NOW!
A 1998 Freeper, Romulus has not gotten with the program.
Give it up. There were no WMDs. Iraq was a railroad job engineered by Cheney, Rumsfeld, & Co. The power vacuum we created in 2003 has been filled by violent islamists — as I predicted at the time. Obama’s failure is in doing nothing to redeem the situation and in positively supporting the islamists in Syria and elsewhere. Obama took a bad situation and made it worse. But Bush destabilized the region, to his everlasting infamy. Second worst president ever.
Poor Graewoulf.
What does it take for Boehner to begin Articles of Impeachment for the Democrat’s Obama?
Rennes Templar thinks the only way to keep soldiers from dying is to keep them in Iraq.
The shame should be over the waste of US soldiers lives. If Obama had followed through with military presence, I believe Iraq would be stable. The only way to keep the sectarian violence down is with a strong deterent. I think the extremists could have been marginalized. Now, forget it.

5 comments:

  1. "Obama has had, what, 172 golf days since he took office?

    Iraq is falling apart, and Obama is so concerned that he goes to a high school graduation and tells everyone how bad the Republicans are.

    Golf and gab......that’s what you get from Obama. "

    "Now watch this drive." -- GWB
    Freepers sure are concerned about golfing all of a sudden.
    I thought the surge worked.
    I guess as soon as we stopped paying Iraqis to not kill each other, they resumed.
    What was it GW said, it was racist of people to think that Iraqis are not capable of democracy? That the definition of victory is "not no violence"?
    I think the Freep keyboard warriors should sign up to relieve our soldiers who've been over their for multiple tours. And if they're too old, sign up their kids and grandkids. Because dammit, something must be done. That'll show King Obama their resolve.

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    1. Morning B!

      Obama does hold the bag for this. Sorry. And the 75% figure is fairly accurate. The ROE changed after he were sworn in, making it almost impossible for squads to protect themselves. Seeing hostiles and having to wait until they shoot before shooting back is not a recipe for keeping living soldiers.

      Then pulling out without making a force agreement first? Hell, the US has had bases in Germany since WW2, thanks to a force agreement. Ditto South Korea.

      If you go in, you make sure you keep the peace for as long as it takes. Pity - I like Iraqis. Nice people in the main, friendly as anything. Still got a lot of friends there from my time there.

      Agree about the keyboard warriors. Every time one of them talks about glass parking lots, I am tempted to find them and lay a Hellfire or a Stinger on their trailer.

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    2. EC - got any actual links for the 75% claim?

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    3. Got ones for Afghanistan where the war is still hot and ongoing:

      http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/obamavsbush
      http://cnsnews.com/news/article/dennis-m-crowley/12-year-war-73-us-casualties-afghanistan-obamas-watch

      Many (if not most) of them green on blue attacks.

      Iraq - nothing as clear cut. Fewer in total, by a long chalk (roughly 272 killed under Obama, several thousand injured to a greater or lesser extent out of nearly 5000 dead and 50,000 wounded) so I'll grant you that. Most of the Iraq casualties happened in the first month of the war, then virtually nothing for years.

      You got me thinking of the difference between the two conflicts. To put it simply, Afghans don't want us there. The Iraqi's did. Still do, by all reports - it takes a lot to make a rather proud people ask for help. Hell - they are even accepting help from their old enemy Iran right now. How pushed must they be to do that?

      Still, eraadat Allah, right?

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  2. The 75% claim is nonsense.Here are the numbers of fatalities among coaltion forces:
    2003:580
    2004:906
    2005:897
    2006:961
    2007:322
    2008:322
    2009:150
    2010:60
    2011:54
    2012:1

    It looks from those numbers that almost 95% of fatalities (and I think the numbers for wounded would be similar) occured before Obama took office.

    And as much as everyone now says that we should have made an agreement with Maliki to keep forces in the area, Maliki wanted us out. As some general said, they have to want it more than we do.

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