BillBrasky
#PSF
I've long been an advocate of doubling the size of the Indian Ocean. Come on science!
Don't speak for me and my brothers and sisters.
I've long been an advocate of doubling the size of the Indian Ocean. Come on science!
No, he ran partially on bringing the boys home. That means you turn over security to the Iraqis, bring most soldiers home (or send them to Afghanistan), but continue with the backing and support of the US government. We did one and not the other. A token force left behind to offer support and strikes when necessary would likely have nipped ISIS in the bud. And as a condition of the support, you make the Iraqis flip the bill in some way, shape, or form.
I'm confident that a congress would've cooperated for that had he had any desire to do so.
Generally agree with your post. Obama wanted out to placate the RJ's and W&B's of his party. They and he (Obama) knew things would unravel thus completing the narrative they've been spewing for last decade. Same would have happened on the Korean peninsula had it not been for American leadership. Just because we entered Iraq the wrong way was not justification for leaving the wrong way. Sleeves should have been rolled up and some sort of Status of Forces agreement worked out.
Obama's foreign policy plan has been two fold.
1. Get the hell out.
2. Don't start none, won't be none.
He's been successful.
Blaming Obama for the deficit is as retarded as hell. Bush left an economy that was hemorraging 700K jobs a month and set up for a $1 trillion plus deficit. ANY PRESIDENT was running trillion dollar deficits for a few years unless they wanted a depression on their hands.
The deficit has actually been brought back under control quite nicely.
Foreign policy is fair game, but making the deficit argument is just dumb.
As to point #1, that's partially true and was politically in line with the will of the country he is supposed to represent. He's been less decisive than you state in #1 as to Afghanistan, but withdrawal is a messy thing (pause for visual).
As to point #2, he certainly believes that, but so did President Clinton. Nine months later we were missing a couple of skyscrapers (not blaming Clinton, just illustrating causal analysis; we were fairly disengaged from the ME militarily on September 10, 2001). I do not believe our involvement in the Middle East causes the virulent strain of Islam, but it does give them something to focus their crazy against. Maybe the best plan is to toss deuces their way and return 100 years from now when the fallout has settled.
When history judges W. outside of the toxic political moment of the day, I think it will be fairly said that he wanted us involved in a broken place in an attempt to fix it with Western style Democracy. We shed a lot of blood and treasure in that effort, and it was quickly apparent that we were the only ones that wanted that outcome in the deal. If/when it doesn't take and slumps back into the abyss of fourteenth century violent theocracies, we need to remember the lessons of how little the people of that region desired our assistance. Allah knows we gave them every opportunity to beat back the crazy and the crazy won. The statesman of the Middle East we anticipated would lead the transition to representative self-government struck out looking when it was their turn to lead. If you shit the bed five nights in a row, you won't stop doing it until it becomes your responsibility to change the sheets. We need to stay the hell away from orderly duty in that section of the world, and if that's Obama's plan, I'm cool with it so long as we reserve the right to curb stomp anyone that looks our way for a fight. Let them build whatever they want at this point, so long as it does not threaten our security.
Generally agree with your post. Obama wanted out to placate the RJ's and W&B's of his party. They and he (Obama) knew things would unravel thus completing the narrative they've been spewing for last decade. Same would have happened on the Korean peninsula had it not been for American leadership. Just because we entered Iraq the wrong way was not justification for leaving the wrong way. Sleeves should have been rolled up and some sort of Status of Forces agreement worked out.
Generally agree with your post. Obama wanted out to placate the RJ's and W&B's of his party. They and he (Obama) knew things would unravel thus completing the narrative they've been spewing for last decade. Same would have happened on the Korean peninsula had it not been for American leadership. Just because we entered Iraq the wrong way was not justification for leaving the wrong way. Sleeves should have been rolled up and some sort of Status of Forces agreement worked out.