Barack Obama’s Excursion to the Middle East
What exactly was Barack Obama doing in the middle east and Germany last week? It would appear as though Mr. Obama was working on diplomatic relations with the countries that he visited; trying to iron out a plan for troop withdrawalin Iraq as well as discussing the need for more troops in Afghanistan. The liberal media has portrayed Mr. Obama’s trip as being enlightening and truth revealing pertaining to our military status in Iraq.
The Obama-loving media has reported Barack saying that he is dead set on withdrawing troops from Iraq in 16 months. A German magazine quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Malikias as saying that he backed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months,” he said in an interview with Der Spiegel that was released Saturday.
“That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” he said. (CNN.com)
The reality of the situation is that Iraq cannot be put on a timetable for troop withdrawal yet. The withdrawal of U.S. forces depends entirely on the security of the situation. Mr. Obama is using the bias of the media to portray him as bringing change to Iraq and devising a plan to take U.S. forces out when really the reality of his troop withdrawal is not feasible in the least bit. It is much too early to say when we can start withdrawing troops. The security is getting better due to a successful surge of American troops. But we cannot be so quick to withdraw forces when we are finally getting the upper hand.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s spokesman Laith Kubba discusses the country’s troop training and other rebuilding efforts–
“I think the concept of a timetable is misleading. It should be linked very much to conditions and to performance of the ability of Iraqi institutions, police, to perform and fill the gap.
Otherwise, if there is premature withdrawal, before the Iraqis can run the show properly, then you’re leaving the stage open for terrorist networks who are not simply going to operate in Iraq, but they’re going to make Iraq their base for operations worldwide.” (pbs.org/newshour)
Mr. Obama does not link his timetable to anything but getting votes. He is not analyzing the situation correctly. Mr. Obama has been quoted saying that he still won’t admit that the troop surge is a success even though the situation in Iraq is increasingly getting better. So what is he basing his withdrawal of troops on? If the prime minister of Iraq’s spokesman basically said that a troop withdrawal not linked to success in Iraq is suicide, then how can the troop withdrawal proposed by Barack be anything but dangerous and unhealthy for U.S. and Iraq. Mr. Obama’s only goal in setting a timetable for withdrawal is getting votes from people who want to see the war end. I don’t think Obama realizes that we all want to end the war, including his opponent John McCain. But, we can’t just pull out all troops because we feel like it. Everything that the soldiers in Iraq died for will be lost. Obama cares more about winning his campaign then winning the war in Iraq. His war is the campaign and his soldiers are the media. Like a general, he goes to the middle east; his soldiers, the liberal press conveys the message to the public that their brave general is going to bring the troops home. What the public doesn’t know is that Mr. Obama is going to do nothing but lose the war on terror, a war we have fought diligently to win.
Tags: Barack Obama, Joe Lapinski, Middle East
July 28th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
the reality of his troop withdrawal is not feasible in the least bit.
of course it’s feasible. the president just has to order the military to start withdrawing. there’s nothing impossible or impractical about it. you’re just taking a decision you don’t like and labeling it “not feasible”.
actually the american presence in iraq is currently untenable. the american public is overwhelmingly against staying there as is the iraqi public. both iraq and the u.s. have elections coming up where the withdrawal of u.s. forces is the #1 issue, which is why iraqi prime minister maliki endorsed obama’s timetable last week. his part will lose big unless he tells the iraqi people he working to get rid of foreign troops.
as for the “success” of the surge, actually there are three other major factors that have reduced the violence in iraq: (a) the anbar awakening (which started about 8 months before the surge was announced), (b) moqtada al-sadr’s decision to call a year-long cease fire, and (c) the ethnic cleansing of baghdad was completed last fall. none of those things have much to do with the surge, but the mccain campaign is betting that the american people don’t pay enough attention to iraq to notice.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:16 am
The feasibility in troop withdrawals aren’t that we can’t do it. Sure, the President could order all troops to begin departing Iraq and in the process, abandon bases, ammunition and weapons dumps, other equipment and more importantly, the progress in securing and stabilizing Iraq achieved so far.
The question of feasibility is the condition on the ground - as to whether or not the country would plunge into chaos with a power vacuum as a result of our departure. While we’ve made great strides and the general sentiment is we wish to turn over Iraq to the Iraqis as soon as possible, it would be a logistical and strategic nightmare to exit Iraq through, as you put it, a simple order. Polls show the general public is against continued occupation of Iraq, but additionally that the public trusts John McCain on issues of national security, specifically Iraq policy over Obama.
The surge has worked, and its success is due, in part, to changes in conditions on the ground. However, the main reasoning is the change of strategy that is often overlooked. The surge was not simply just throwing more troops into harms way with hopes that more = better. The soldiers began working more closely with Iraqi forces and locals and through the foresight of General Petraus, has achieved success. It is be asinine to suggest that if Obama’s planned withdrawal in March had gone through, or if we continued at old strategy that Iraq would be in the condition of relative stability that it is today.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Sure, the President could order all troops to begin departing Iraq and in the process, abandon bases, ammunition and weapons dumps, other equipment…
i believe the reason why obama’s “quick” withdrawal plan will take 16 months is to avoid leaving behind any equipment or ammunition. no one is proposing a rush out of iraq without taking our stuff with us. it’s a straw man to suggest otherwise.
…and more importantly, the progress in securing and stabilizing Iraq achieved so far.
the problem is that the presence of u.s. troops itself is a destabilizing influence. the support for the insurgency in iraq is mostly based on the fact that iraqis don’t want to be occupied. if american troops go away, or even just start leaving, that will remove a lot of the reasons for the violence that is so destabilizing there. and the flip side of that is that we cannot stabilize iraq without leaving.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I’m sorry it took me so long to resond to these comments.
“the reality of his troop withdrawal is not feasible in the least bit.”— me
I meant not feasible in the sense that it would be detrimental to pull out of Iraq when we have just started to succeed and make a turn-around.
as for the “success” of the surge, actually there are three other major factors that have reduced the violence in iraq:
the Anbar awakening (which started about 8 months before the surge was announced
As for the Anbar Awakening being one of the leading causes in the success in Iraq, Sheik Abdul Sattar Al-Rishawi who led the Anbar Salvation Front, was a friend, ally, and supporter of the U.S. presence in Iraq. The Anbar Awakening also had the help of United States Marine Corps. We
helped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“moqtada al-sadr’s decision to call a year-long cease fire”
Yes the cease fire can be credited for a reduction of violence but so can the surge!!
And this last one gave me a laugh—
“the ethnic cleansing of baghdad was completed last fall”
Okay Barack. HAHA the ethnic cleansing was violence my friend.