The Vietnamization of Iraq – The Narcissistic Legacy of Barack Obama

Flopping Aces ^ | 08-12-14 | Vince

[Starman417]

A president’s job is tough. And that goes for any president. Aside from being in charge of an organization that employs millions of people and is responsible for the expenditure of trillions of dollars, he is the Commander in Chief. And it is in that area that no doubt weighs most heavily on presidential shoulders. The decision to send young men into battle where you know for an absolute certainty that some will not return must be an extraordinarily difficult decision to make, even when, as in say the D-day landings or Afghanistan, the clarity of the line between good and evil is as stark as between black and white.

For better or worse, that is one of the roles that a president signs up for when he takes the oath of office. Thankfully, other than for a remarkably small number of years in American history, the need for presidents to regularly make those kinds of decisions have been rare. Abraham Lincoln didn’t have that luxury. Neither Wilson nor FDR had it. Nor did Truman, LBJ, Nixon or George W. Bush. And Barack Obama hasn’t had that luxury either.

Adding to the complication of being a war president is the fact that for those not on the battlefields, life often goes on as normal. Aside from the Civil War and WWII, America has rarely been involved in a war where virtually everything in the country was on a war footing where everything is managed for the specific purpose of supporting the war effort. And as life goes on for most of the population, so too does politics, although any war effort is part of that equation.

One of the assets a president has at his disposal is a professional military. As such, presidents usually leave tactical decisions to the military while they can focus on the strategic decisions. In other words, a president decides which wars need to be fought, and the military generally figures out how to accomplish the given task. The lines are never stark between tactics and strategy however as LBJ often wanted to pick the targets to be bombed in North Vietnam and George W. Bush decided to launch “The Surge” in Iraq.

Governing and politics are theoretically different things, but in practice they too blur significantly. From political appointees to which cases to prosecute to deciding what’s a granted Constitutional power and what’s not, there is no clear line of demarcation between politics and governing. When the decision impacts how high farm subsidies will be or what the tax rate will be or how much cable companies can charge, those blurred lines are often tawdry and reprehensible, but they rarely result in the loss of human life.

The president’s responsibility as Commander in Chief is another story altogether. By its very nature that responsibility demands a higher level of attention by a president, and while politics will never be far from his mind, as Commander in Chief his duty is to think strategically in situations where the lives of civilians – both American and foreign – are at risk and the tactics necessary to enforce his strategic decisions may cost the lives American soldiers.

Which brings us to Barack Obama and Iraq. He was against the Iraq war from the beginning, as a state senator at the time saying: “I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.” Later as a senator Obama opposed the surge in 2007 and in 2008 voted to pull out American troops within 120 days. Ending the war in Iraq and bringing American troops home was cornerstone of candidate Obama’s platform in 2008. And as president he was adamant in his intention to keep that promise.

In reality however, the ground had been laid for the end of the war before Obama took office. George Bush signed the Status of Forces Agreement in November of 2008 that called for pulling all American combat forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011. What the SOFA did not cover however was the support that the United States would provide Iraq beyond 2011. Robert Gates, (George Bush’s Secretary of Defense in 2008 and Obama’s until July, 2011) told Charlie Rose that although their mission would change, he expected “perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops” to be left in Iraq after 2011.

[Bubba_Leroy]

A president’s job is tough. And that goes for any president.

It's not so tough if you spend all of your time on vacation or playing golf.

[EagleUSA]

Someone should hand Obama a shovel and send him to Iraq to help bury the people HE PERMITTED ISIS to drive to their deaths. This is what happens when you walk away from a war without winning and finishing it, or ever really fighting it TO WIN. Ala Viet Nam.

[Brad from Tennessee]

(Democracy rarely come quickly or easily. The United States spent seven years under the disastrous Articles of Confederation before we got it right with the Constitution, and that’s without being surrounded by neighbors who provided tens of thousands of terrorist agitators with weapons, training and safe harbor.)

The U.S. occupied Cuba twice to insure a stable government and left sizable troop formations in Germany, Japan and South Korea. Following the war South Korea experienced a series of political crises including a presidential assassination, coups and riots until finally becoming a stable democracy in the 1970’s.

It was Obama’s hope that Iraq would collapse, denying Republicans a legacy of success in the Mideast. But he didn't calculate an upheaval that would endanger the world or that he would share blame.

[rhoda_penmark]

But wait...he received the Nobel Peace Prize !!! /s

[The_Media_never_lie]

Just doesn’t make sense. We will be fighting these barbarians for the next 100 years, at least.

To ignore them, and pretend they don’t exist is suicidal. They are evil and need to be exterminated. They have brainwashed their children to adopt their ways.

[A Navy Vet]

"They have brainwashed their children to adopt their ways."

That's the part that so few realize or report on. It is a vicious cycle of training their children to become murderers which they in turn train their children. I've been following this sick process since I once saw a documentary called, "The Children of Gaza" back in the days of Arafat and his Intifada and bombing cafes, weddings, market places, buses, etc.

I've wrote at length about that documentary, but suffice it to say, the children are taught to hate Israel/Jews from the earliest ages. The documentary journalist went in with a neutral mindset only caring about the welfare of the children. She walked away disgusted. Good luck finding it - think it's been scrubbed from the Web when you could still do it.