Posted on 01/11/2014 11:38:36 AM PST by Ooh-Ah
On January 3, extremists affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq declared an Islamic state over Iraq’s Anbar province — the group now controls territory reaching from western Iraq all the way across Syria. The Iraqi government has since deployed troops to Fallujah, as Prime Minister Maliki vowed to remove al-Qaeda from the country and retake the embattled city.
Western Iraq — destabilized by the civil war in neighboring Syria — threatens to be thrust further into sectarian conflict, and violence throughout the struggling, young democracy is at the highest level since before the U.S. surge. Al-Qaeda, through its Iraqi branch, now controls more territory than ever in the Middle East. So it’s worth remembering some of the Obama administration’s predictions about Iraq as America pulled out of the country:
1.Ultimately these terrorists will fail to achieve their goals. Iraqis are a proud people. They have rejected sectarian war. – Barack Obama, August 31, 2010
2. We [withdrew troops] in phases. And because we did it in phases, we were continually able to build up Iraqi forces to a point where when we left the cities, violence didn’t go up in the cities; when we further reduced our footprint, violence didn’t go up. And I have no doubt that that will continue. – Barack Obama, December 12, 2011
3. I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. – Joe Biden, February 11, 2010
4. The tide of war is receding. The draw down in Iraq allowed us to refocus our fight against al-Qaeda and achieve major victories against its leadership. – Barack Obama, October 21, 2011
5. The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their head held high, proud of their success. – Barack Obama, from the same October 21 speech.
Unfortunately, many veterans in fact are looking back on their service in Iraq and wondering if their sacrifice was for nothing. In a recent New York Times article, Adam Banotai — who was a 21-year-old Marine Corps sergeant in the 2004 invasion of Fallujah — gave his reaction to news that insurgents retook the city:
I don’t think anyone had the grand illusion that Fallujah or Ramadi was going to turn into Disneyland, but none of us thought it was going to fall back to a jihadist insurgency. It made me sick to my stomach to have that thrown in our face, everything we fought for so blatantly taken away.
Take it all the way back to the initial invasion by Bush. The jerks in charge now put all their efforts in to ensuring Iraq was a failure. They hated Bush more than they wanted a succesful Iraq. Now they are reaping what they have sown. Since it didn’t happen on Bush’s watch Iraq is to be ignored now that The Won us in charge.
America will have wasted the years between inauguration day ‘09 and inauguration day ‘17.
Democrats reign supreme at wasting all things military. obama is this on steroids.
We’ve not yet really committed to and begun the modern Crusade.
Yeah, but Christie snarled traffic in Ft Lee, New Jersey for half a day.
The Christie bash fest is successfully keeping this out of the headlines...and conservatives seem to be not seeing that for the most part.
Also, how many military lives have been lost since Obama took office?
The SOB's in the media tracked military losses during the Bush years on a semi-daily basis!!! Now there seems to be nothing reported?
Shhhh! He’s black.... He’s not to be criticized.
“the SOB’s in the media tracked military losses during the Bush years on a semi-daily basis!!! Now there seems to be nothing reported?”
Psychotic, adolescent, subversive Progressives have a habit of being psychotic, adolescent, subversive Progressives.
IMHO
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