Obama: Time to Leave Iraq

by Steve

In the aftermath of the Iraqi government refusing to grant immunity to any American military forces which remain in-country after 2011, President Obama fulfilled a campaign promise today by announcing that all American military forces, even anticipated military trainers will now exit the country by the end of the year. The State Department is now slated to take over many the Defense Department’s duties going forward, which will be a daunting task and will regrettably involve the use of thousands of private contract staff.

Critics from both sides of the spectrum are complaining: the left is unhappy that there will still be a large CIA, covert ops/drone, and private security contingent in Iraq, and the right is already set to blame Obama for Iraq's possible descent into civil war with an assist from Iran. But this outcome was baked in the cake with George W. Bush’s Iraq decision a decade ago. The left should simply be glad at this point that our military is getting out of the mess that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld put them into. As for the rightwingers, you can't argue simultaneously for low taxes, an autopilot war machine, and for Main Street to give up Social Security and Medicare.

The first asinine response from a GOP contender can reliably be ascribed to the seriously overmatched Herman Cain, who after admitting earlier today that critics of his 9-9-9 plan were correct, then complained that by doing what he said he would do nearly three years ago, Obama is now compromising security. With more stupidity like this from the rest of the GOP field, it makes it all the more certain that Obama's team will build their reelection upon Rove's 2004 strategy: sell the electorate on the view that your opponents are flip-floppers (Romney), or not serious commander-in-chief material (everyone else).