President Obama’s Iraq Speech — Excerpts

“Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended.”
You lie!
Iraq – An End or an Escalation?
“50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, and they are still receiving combat pay. One soldier was killed in Basra just last Sunday, after the supposed end of combat operations, and the same day 5,000 men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood were deployed to Iraq. Their mission will be anything but desk duty. Among other things they will accompany the Iraqi military on dangerous patrols, continue to be involved in the hunt for terrorists, and provide air support for the Iraqi military. They should be receiving combat pay, because they will be serving a combat role!
Of course the number of private contractors – who perform many of the same roles as troops, but for a lot more money – is expected to double. So this is a funny way of ending combat operations in Iraq. We are still meddling in their affairs and we are still putting our men and women in danger, and we are still spending money we don’t have. This looks more like an escalation than a draw-down to me!”

He coulda kept it short: “Thank you President Bush, the surge worked. You were right, I was wrong. Goodnight America.”

Good speech, President Obama.

Then WHY are they STILL there!

Let’s not forget where every prominent Democrat proudly stood just two short years ago:
Pelosi – “The surge has failed.”
Kerry – “I KNOW the surge won’t work.”
Reid – “The war is lost” … on the floor of the Senate.
Obama – “20,000 troops aren’t going to do anything to increase security. I OPPOSE the surge.”
All of these despicable quotes were uttered while our best and brightest were in harm’s way on the field of battle. Don’t ever forget that. Remember in November.

Let’s not forget where every prominent Democrat proudly stood just two short years ago:
Pelosi – “The surge has failed.”
Kerry – “I KNOW the surge won’t work.”
Reid – “The war is lost” … on the floor of the Senate.
Obama – “20,000 troops aren’t going to do anything to increase security. I OPPOSE the surge.”
All of these despicable quotes were uttered while our best and brightest were in harm’s way on the field of battle. Don’t ever forget that. Remember in November.
–
Woody, that brings back the happy memories of what people like Hillary, Pelosi, Gore, and all that gang thought of WMDs:
“Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process.”
-Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998
“Iraq’s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.”
– Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
“In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members … It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.”
– Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

It ain’t over ’til Da Fat Lady Sings…..

Sorry no free exchange of opinions here…
Censorship of OBAMA lies….

Outside of the mission name “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, Obama did not use the word “freedom” once in his speech. Marxists typically have an aversion to that word.

Igor, Stanley Dunham, President Obama’s maternal grandfather served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II, enlisting just after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. He is buried at Punchbowl National Cemetery (National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii). Stanley’s older brother, Ralph, President Obama’s great uncle also served in WW II.

Yet he voiced opinion against going to war, apparently because of.self serving political and ideological reasons.
—
Libs did and then they funded it.

The democrats voted FOR the war -
Then they turned against the war after men had already given their lives – the democrats abandoned the troops in the field.
Obama and the democrats wanted to DECLARE THE WAR LOST – AND LEAVE IN DISGRACE.
Let NO ONE forget that Harry Reid said the war was lost.

“Woody, that brings back the happy memories of what people like Hillary, Pelosi, Gore, and all that gang thought of WMDs:”
Just goes to show the depths the Bush admin was going to to deceive Congress and the American people.
Where are the WMDs?

“Let’s not forget that when President Bush and Congress, including leading democrats, decided to go to war, Obama was not an elected Senator and was not privy to the intelligence evidence supporting the decision to go to war.. Yet he voiced opinion against going to war, apparently because of.self serving political and ideological reasons”
Or he realized that Saddam was no threat to us and had nothing to do with 9/11.
True there were some Democrats who were so scared of being called terrorist sympathizers by right wingers (ironic since Bush dropped the ball allowing 3000 American to be killed) but Obama stood against the war when it was deeply unpopular.
He is continuing the mission in Afghanistan because he believes in that war even as public opinion grinds against that war as well.
So where are the WMDs?

Ryan C,
WHERE ARE THE 3-4 MILLION “SAVED” JOBS?
Can you define a “saved” job?
What department within the gov’t counts this phantom statistic? – Labor, Treasury, maybe its the IRS?

“So where are the WMDs?”
Saddam Hussein was a WMD.
From Wikipedia:
According to The New York Times, “he [Saddam] murdered as many as a million of his people, many with poison gas. He tortured, maimed and imprisoned countless more. His unprovoked invasion of Iran is estimated to have left another million people dead. His seizure of Kuwait threw the Middle East into crisis. More insidious, arguably, was the psychological damage he inflicted on his own land. Hussein created a nation of informants — friends on friends, circles within circles — making an entire population complicit in his rule”. Estimates for the number of dead in the Iran-Iraq war vary from 500,000 to 1.5 million. Others have estimated 800,000 deaths caused by Saddam not counting the Iran-Iraq war.

Ryan C,
Bush was at work long before his election:
“The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow.” — Bill Clinton in 1998
“Saddam’s goal … is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed.” — Madeline Albright, 1998

A majority of Americans rightly believes the Iraq War was a costly mistake.
Rachel Maddow had a good clip on her show last night about the credit Bush deserves (not the credit the right wingers talk about, the credit he actually deserves.) I also mentioned Juan Cole’s alternative speech in a prior post. Worth a read.
I also recommend a handy sheet listing oodles of articles pertaining to how exactly Bush-Cheney treated the troops– how they were overused and overextended, inadequately protected and cared for, the psychological trauma and suicide, and the deterioration of morale over time and why. See “How Bush supported the troops” by Laurence Lewis.
I realize that much of the country was asleep, apparently, and was suddenly awoken when a biracial Democrat became president and the xenophobic fearmongering right wing giant roared, so they don’t know what happened, and a lot of others have collective amnesia or IOKIYR but not otherwise disease mixed in with a healthy dose of Obama derangement syndrome, but… its important to learn from our mistakes and to grapple with how we got where we are.
The President made a dignified and appropriately muted speech last night about a seven year mistake filled with blunders. He honored our men and women in the military as he should. And he does deserve credit for not putting off the artificial event that just happened as I believe McCain would have; he was true to his word. As George Packer puts it, we are leaving undefeated and unvictorious. But Obama did keep his campaign promise, which makes me believe he will when it comes to Afghanistan as well.
It feels flat, because it is flat. I’m glad Saddam Hussein is gone as he was a tyrant, but besides that, what in the world were we doing????
War isn’t glorious. Its almost always about money.
And we’re broke.
And, yeah, I blame Bush. WMD’s?
That’s old news. The war was a friggin’ mistake.

“According to The New York Times, “he [Saddam] murdered as many as a million of his people, many with poison gas. He tortured, maimed and imprisoned countless more. His unprovoked invasion of Iran is estimated to have left another million people dead.”
So 15 to 30 years after the fact of Saddam’s atrocities, we invaded over a lie.
Also when Saddam was slaughtering his own people, warring with Iran even using poison gas on both his own people and Iranians wasn’t he buddies with the Reagan administration, the right wing patron saint of senility and barbarity?

Ryan C,
You say bush lied, PROVE IT show us all the links to all those documented lies.
By the way, IF Bush lied, and he “fooled” all the great intellects on the left, HOW DO WE KNOW TODAY THAT OBAMA IS NOT LYING ON ACH OF HIS POLICY DECISIONS.
His track record is so so wonderful. This administration is going down in history as Great Mis-calcuation! The economy, healthcare, energy, the oil disaster, immigration, etc. Pick any subject, this group of “intellectual mis-fits” has missed the mark on EVERYTHING!

Appreciate it for all your efforts that you have put in this. Very interesting info. “I quote others only in order the better to express myself.” by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne.