What any of the repugicans blaming Obama for pulling American troops
out of Iraq in 2011 should remember, is that in October 2008 the shrub was pretending to be president…
It is too bad repugicans lack any semblance of a
memory dating back to before America invaded and conquered Iraq because
the shrub junta saw an opportunity to enrich Dick Cheney’s
company and kill muslims. If they did, they would see a relatively
stable region where Iran was not the dominant force in the area, radical muslims were not attempting to overthrow Syria, Iraqi Sunni and Shia
Muslims lived in peace in the same neighborhoods, and the idea of an
Iraqi civil war was remote. However, repugicans can hardly remember
what they lied about yesterday much less what the shrub did thirteen years
ago, so it is typical that they find no issue blaming the current
situation in Iraq on President Obama.
What any of the repugicans blaming Obama for
pulling American troops out of Iraq in 2011 should remember, is that in
October 2008 the shrub was pretending to be president when the Status of Forces
Agreement was drafted and ratified by Iraqi lawmakers a month later in
November 2008. The pertinent part of the agreement that President Obama
honored was that, “All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all
Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011.” Still, repugicans are
assailing the President for abandoning Iraq they were fully prepared to
continue occupying in perpetuity, and forget that besides the shrub, an
ill-advised strategy by former repugican man-god General David Patraeus
mishandling of the so-called “surge” that created the militant
insurgency threatening to completely tear Iraq apart and finish
completely destabilizing the region the shrub’s invasion started eleven years
ago.
The sectarian war raging in Iraq today is the result
of America’s allegedly successful effort to contain sectarian violence
in Iraq through the so-called “surge” that is the reason for what is
becoming a devastating and uncontrollable civil war in Iraq. It is
important to remember that part and parcel of General David Patraeus’
strategy in the “surge” was arming and paying Iraqi Sunnis to assist
Americans on the one hand, and the other allowing Iraqi Shias to cleanse
entire neighborhoods of Sunnis who are now waging an insurgent war
against government forces. Some of the arms the insurgency is using are
holdover “gifts” Patraeus showered on them that were used in Syria and
now Iraq. There is a reason Iran supports Iraq’s government forces and
called on Shias to fight with Iraq’s national army and put down former
Iraqi Sunnis who were attacked viciously by the majority Iraqi Shias
during the American occupation. It is true that some of the blame
clearly falls on Iraqi leader Maliki for religious sectarianism
targeting Sunnis since before the insurgency began in earnest, and now
the entire nation is paying a heavy price.
Iraqi leader Maliki, a Shia Muslim, has been heavily
criticized for pursuing security policies that alienated ordinary
Sunnis, such as sweeps that rounded up hundreds of men, innocent and
guilty alike, and the arrest of the wives of suspected militants.
According to a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and now a visiting fellow
at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, James Jeffrey said,
“they (Maliki’s army) had lost the support of the people because they
had a sectarian policy, and I saw it with my own eyes.” No doubt many of
the militants are driven by revenge and retribution for being driven
out of their homes and massacred by the government under majority Shia
control with assistance from Americans who failed to protect minority
Sunnis on orders from Patraeus.
What is happening in Iraq is a continuation of the
sectarian religious war, or civil war if it pleases, that began after
America invaded and upset the balance that Saddam Hussein presided over.
It is true Saddam was a tyrant, but there was relative calm and
cooperation between minority Sunnis and Bathists in control of the
government and the majority Shia population. After America overthrew
Saddam’s government and installed a Shia majority, not only did
predominately Shia Iran rise to power, Iraqi Shias embarked on a crusade
to eradicate Sunnis and exact retribution against ordinary Sunnis. Now
the shoe is on the other foot and seeing the gravity of the situation,
Iraq’s Shiite religious authorities issued statements in support of the
Shiite-dominated Iraqi army. The top Shiite spiritual leader in the
world, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani gave his support to “the sons
within the Iraqi security forces,” and a representative for Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, urged Shiites to join the security
forces to combat Sunni militants.
For their part, the militants are not out to
massacre Iraqis and took care to warn off citizens from the danger of
impending battles. Residents said when militants entered populated
areas, “They greeted us, and when they saw that we were scared they
said, ‘We are not here to fight you. Just stay away and do not
interfere. We are here to fight Maliki’s army, not you.’”
Whatever is happening, or will happen, in Iraq is a direct and irrefutable result of America’s invasion and poorly administered war of occupation. None of the blame rests with the troops sent to fight and die in a completely unnecessary war of American aggression, any more than it is Barack Obama’s fault for honoring the agreement the shrub brokered in 2008 to withdraw American forces by December 2011.
Whatever is happening, or will happen, in Iraq is a direct and irrefutable result of America’s invasion and poorly administered war of occupation. None of the blame rests with the troops sent to fight and die in a completely unnecessary war of American aggression, any more than it is Barack Obama’s fault for honoring the agreement the shrub brokered in 2008 to withdraw American forces by December 2011.
Saddam Hussein may have been a tyrant, but while he
was in power Sunnis and Shias were not involved in a sectarian religious
war, Iran was not a regional power, and Syria was not threatened by
Islamic extremists and civil war. The repugicans learned absolutely nothing
from the Iraq War debacle except that it was not white guy shrub’s fault and like everything else they screwed up during their eight
year reign of terror, they blame the African American man in the White
House.
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