This was the timetable set in the Status of Forces agreement with Iraq, signed by President George W. Bush:
"All the United States forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011."It was reaffirmed as a promise by Obama in the 2008 campaign, and it is the expressed wish of the Iraqi government itself. They want us to leave their country. We made it clear that we would like to leave some troops there as advisers; they didn't want it.
They are a sovereign nation, as George Bush reminded us when he signed the agreement. Even the guy who ordered the invasion knew we had to get out when their legitimately elected government wants us out.
But listen to the anti-Obama Republicans' reactions:
Mitt Romney: They either failed to do it [impose a different withdrawal timetable] by virtue of ineptitude or they decided it wasn't that important, either politically or otherwise.
John McCain: I think it's a serious mistake.
Lindsay Graham: This was a failure by the Obama administration to close the deal.
Michele Bachmann: The president has been a failure when it comes to foreign policy. [As opposed to Dubya's great successes? Is that what you're saying, Michele, honey?]
Jon Stewart skewered the lot of them, claiming they are suffering from "Empty Nest Syndrome." He ridiculed them for "disliking Obama's radical decision to do the thing that George Bush promised to do."
Bachman is in a category all by herself as a Looney Toon. She even argues with herself by making conflicting statements:
(1) On Iraq, she criticizes Obama for withdrawing the troops, "because when we have deposed one of these dictators, we have always left troops behind to maintain the fragile peace;"
(2) On Libya, "I opposed the president putting us to war in Libya. One of the things we should have learned in these last 12 years is that once we are in involved in a foreign entanglement, it's very difficult to get out and it's usually at a very high cost.
Looney toons . . . they makes my head spin.
Ralph
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