Thread: Who Pulled Troops Out of Iraq? Suddenly the President Doesn’t Know

Who Pulled Troops Out of Iraq? Suddenly the President Doesn’t Know

Author: Rusty Weiss
Posted: June 20, 2014
Comments: 8

In 2011, President Obama was crowing to anybody that would listen about an arrangement he had facilitated to completely withdraw troops from Iraq. He did so while crediting so many others for their help in bringing that agreement to fruition.
Just kidding, it was all about Obama:

As a candidate for president, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end…. After taking office, I announced a new strategy that would end our combat mission in Iraq and remove all of our troops by the end of 2011. … So, today, I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over.

“The rest of our troops.”
You can watch the video on how Obama single-handedly brought the remainder of our troops home from Iraq here.
The Washington Post summarizes the benefit to the President making this claim: “… the fact he had withdrawn all U.S. forces from the country was a problem solved and a political chip to be cashed in come November.”
What the President was referring to was a Status of Forces Agreement, ratified by Iraqi lawmakers in November 2008 which stated in part, “All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011.”
Now that Iraq is burning, with major territories falling to Islamic insurgents, President Obama has suddenly remembered that agreement and placed the blame for having no troop presence in the country squarely on the shoulders of those Iraqi lawmakers.
Via the Washington Post:

Q: Just very quickly, do you wish you had left a residual force in Iraq? Any regrets about that decision in 2011?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, keep in mind that wasn’t a decision made by me. That was a decision made by the Iraqi government. We offered a modest residual force to help continue to train and advise Iraqi security forces. We had a core requirement, which we were require in any situation where we have U.S. troops overseas, and that is — is that they are provided immunity at the — since they are being invited by the sovereign government there, so that if, for example, they end up acting in self-defense if they are attacked and find themselves in a tough situation, that they’re not somehow hauled before a foreign court. That’s a core requirement that we have for U.S. troop presence anywhere. The Iraqi government and Prime Minister Maliki declined to provide us that immunity.

Here’s the clip:
Even the Washington Post noted the President’s hypocrisy, saying the statement was surprising and reminding readers that Obama had taken full credit for pulling troops out of Iraq during his 2012 campaign. In fact, the Post went so far as to point out that the President was lying.

President Obama surprised a few people during a news conference Thursday by claiming that the 2011 decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq, a politically popular move on the eve of an election year, was made entirely by his Iraqi counterpart. The implication ran counter to a number of claims that Obama has made in the past, most notably during a tight campaign season two years ago, when he suggested that it was his decision to leave Iraq and end an unpopular war.

Referring to it as an “implication,” when as the video demonstrates it was an accusation or a definitive statement, is just a media device to avoid flat-out accusing the President of lying.
Here is the story’s transformation, summarized:

(2011): “I announced a new strategy that would end our combat mission in Iraq and remove all of our troops by the end of 2011.”

(2014): “Any regrets about that decision in 2011?” a reporter asked. “Well, keep in mind that wasn’t a decision made by me,” Obama said.

Perhaps the President should heed his own words when changing the facts surrounding foreign policy events. During the third Presidential debate in 2012, Obama reflected on one thing he had learned as commander in chief.
“You’ve got to be clear, both to our allies and our enemies, about where you stand and what you mean.”


http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/w...t-doesnt-know/

Barack Obama, Outraged at Possibly Losing the Lie of the Week Competition, Comes Up w/ an Iraq Whopper

By Norvell Rose
5 4:35 pm June 20, 2014

Okay, so I’m making an assumption about the president’s mindset. But given what Obama said about the decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq, it seems to be a perfectly plausible explanation for the latest presidential whopper.
After all, in the DC “Lie of the Week” competition, those preposterously feeble excuses for the IRS “lost” emails score pretty darned high on the fabrication scale.
Are you ready for this one? President Obama actually claimed in a White House news conference — right there in front of the media and all the world — that it was not his decision to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq, which is now collapsing into chaos as a massive jihadist force overruns the nation.
Despite this stupefying claim that it wasn’t his idea, Obama proudly, repeatedly and emphatically claimed credit for the pullout in the months leading up to the 2012 election.
*** (Check out our earlier post on the news conference in which Obama tried to explain his Iraq strategy by saying “uh…uh…uh…” almost 150 times.) ***
The Washington Free Beacon brings us the mind-numbing details of the president’s latest vain and self-serving attempt to rewrite history, and rather recent history at that:

Asked if he had any “regrets” about not leaving a residual force in Iraq, Obama advised reporters to “Keep in mind, that wasn’t a decision made by me. That was a decision made by the Iraqi government.”
Back in 2011, Obama proudly touted the small number of troops remaining in Iraq as one of his foremost accomplishments. “When I came into office,” he boasted at the time, “I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end. As Commander in Chief, I ended our combat mission last year and pledged to keep our commitment to remove all our troops by the end of 2011. To date, we’ve removed more than 100,000 troops from Iraq.”
In 2011 and 2012, the news was rife with triumphant quotes from Obama about the withdrawal: “After nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over.” “Change is turning the page on a decade of war so we can do some nation building here at home.” He even announced that he and Maliki were “in full agreement about how to move forward.”

So now that Iraq is literally falling apart, now that the nation for which American forces fought so hard to give a chance at an orderly structure with a relatively free future…now that the country is besieged by bloodthirsty terrorists, Obama is trying to shift the blame for the fall.
Man up? No, not Barack Obama. Not when he can serve up a whopper expected to be consumed and regurgitated by a complicit media.
But the president’s “it wasn’t my fault” act is a weak and wobbly disgrace — one that certainly qualifies as a contender for “Lie of the Week” against the notorious and utterly ridiculous IRS “lost” email excuses.

Care to vote on the winner?


http://www.libertynews.com/2014/06/b...-iraq-whopper/