Obama Attributes Drop In Iraq Violence To Democrats Getting Elected In 2006
What we have to do is to begin a phased redeployment to send a clear signal to the Iraqi government that we are not going to be there in perpetuity. Now, it will—we should be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in. I welcome the genuine reductions of violence that have taken place, although I would point out that much of that violence has been reduced because there was an agreement with tribes in Anbar province—Sunni tribes—who started to see, after the Democrats were elected in 2006, you know what, the Americans may be leaving soon, and we are going to be left very vulnerable to the Shi’as. We should start negotiating now. That’s how you change behavior.
And that’s why I will send a clear signal to the Iraqi government. They will have ample time to get their act together, to actually pass an oil law, which has been—they’ve been talking about now for years.
I’ll admit that out of all the Democrat candidates, Barack Obama is the one I like the most on a personal level. He seems like a principled and affable buy. But it is a special kind of despicable for him to attribute the success we’ve had in Iraq not to the smart planning and execution of our military leaders under David Petraeus, or the courageous hard work put in by our troops, but rather to that which is politically convenient for him. Namely, the election of his liberal brethren to office in 2006.
Plus, as we all remember, it was the Democrats who opposed the “surge” strategy vehemently saying that it would just result in the loss of more American lives. It seems to me that it is highly inappropriate for Obama and his fellow liberals to try and take credit for a policy they opposed. Heck, Obama himself opposed the “surge” strategy, now he’s trying to put the credit for the success of that strategy somewhere other than where it belongs.
That’s not only cynical, it’s unfair to the military men and women who really are responsible for what’s happened in Iraq.















