Krauthammer: Obama washing his hands of Iraq

I was right.

Del Dolemonte on August 3, 2010 at 5:12 PM

President Bush Speech on the USS Abramham Lincoln
http://hubpages.com/hub/President_Bush_and_the_Mission_Accomplished_Speech

President Bush never mentioned the “Mission Accomplished”; rather he stated that there was an end of major combat operations. He was standing under a Banner that stated Mission Accomplished which was for the USS Abraham Lincoln which had just completed the longest deployment of a Carrier Group in 30 years.

President Bush also states that the mission will go on for years and that we will stay until Iraq has an established government. Some how the media and liberals never read or heard the speech because they all seem to think that President Bush declared the war and our roll in Iraq as over. In today’s world you have to check thinks out to maker sure that you are getting the truth and not someone opinion or interpretation being reported as news. I have included the text of the speech and a link for you to check out the story.

Bush stated:

…Bush states for anyone actually willing to read and understand…..that the job is nowhere near over in Iraq and that we will stand with the Iraqis as they fight for their Freedom.

Never does Bush say the “war is over”.

Baxter Greene on August 3, 2010 at 5:45 PM

Obama not having a clue how to handle a victory handed to him in Iraq…..half a$$ing Afghanistan……Putin and Ahmadinejad slapping him around, is nothing new…

……Obama showed terrible judgment and a serious lack of intelligence before and right after he was elected.

Here is where Obama stood on the surge….the same surge that did turn things around in Iraq and allowed Obama to go around talking about how successful things are over there now:

Obama’s position in January 2007:

OBAMA: We cannot impose a military solution on what has effectively become a civ#l war. And until we acknowledge that reality, uh, we can send 15,000 more troops; 20,000 more troops; 30,000 more troops. Uh, I don’t know any, uh, expert on the region or any military officer that I’ve spoken to, uh, privately that believes that that is gonna make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground.

A Democratic debate in September 13, 2007:

After putting an additional 30,000 troops in, far longer & more troops than the president had initially said, we have gone from a horrendous situation of violence in Iraq to the same intolerable levels of violence that we had back in June of 2006. So, essentially, after all this we’re back where we were 15 months ago. And what has not happened is any movement with respect to the sort of political accommodations among the various factions, the Shia, the Sunni, and Kurds that were the rationale for surge and that ultimately is going to be what stabilizes Iraq. So, I think it is fair to say that the president has simply tried to gain another six months to continue on the same course that he’s been on for several years now. It is a course that will not succeed. It is a course that is exacting an enormous toll on the American people & our troops.

The recently-scrubbed portion of Obama’s web site: “The surge is not working.” Greg has the whole sections that were deleted.

UPDATE: Even more, from the Powerline guys:

January 10, 2007, on MSNBC:

I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.

On May 25, 2007, in a speech to the Coalition Of Black Trade Unionists Convention, Obama said:

And what I know is that what our troops deserve is not just rhetoric, they deserve a new plan. Governor Romney and Senator McCain clearly believe that the course that we’re on in Iraq is working, I do not.

On July 18, 2007, on the Today show, he said:

My assessment is that the surge has not worked and we will not see a different report eight weeks from now.

On November 11, 2007, two months after General David Petraeus told Congress that the surge was working, Obama doubled down, saying that the administration’s new strategy was making the situation in Iraq worse:

Finally, in 2006-2007, we started to see that, even after an election, George Bush continued to want to pursue a course that didn’t withdraw troops from Iraq but actually doubled them and initiated a surge and at that stage I said very clearly, not only have we not seen improvements, but we’re actually worsening, potentially, a situation there.

This is clearly not the sign of great intelligence.

Baxter Greene on August 3, 2010 at 6:28 PM

Obama spent years telling the Nation how he was smarter than Bush and how he had a much better plan for Afghanistan….

…..then it took him months to finally address Afghanistan.
When he did in March…he put “his” General in charge and instituted a plan left over to him from Bush.

…then he went for months without providing the resources to McCrystal to fulfill the mission he had sent him on.

He finally met face to face with McCrystal in August to tell him to hold off on the previous mission so that he could “reassess” Afghanistan.

He came out months later to approve the middle of the road plan from McCrystal…..all of this taking a year.
Took Obama a year to institute a plan that he bragged about for years was better than Bush’s.

….almost gives the impression that Obama really had no plan at all and that he was running off at the mouth for votes…….

……you know what else gives this impression….the people around Obama who stated that they had no plan…and had no idea what it would take to institute a plan.

Obama WH bought COIN without understanding the cost: WaPo
posted at 9:30 am on October 8, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/08/obama-wh-bought-coin-without-understanding-the-cost-wapo/#comment-2810309

However, the Post reports that Obama and his team never understood the implications of his demand for the new strategy. McChrystal’s assessment of the needs for his COIN plan sent them into “sticker shock,” according to one Post source in the White House (emphasis mine):

“It was easy to say, ‘Hey, I support COIN,’ because nobody had done the assessment of what it would really take, and nobody had thought through whether we want to do what it takes,” said one senior civilian administration official who participated in the review, using the shorthand for counterinsurgency.

……Now that is sheer genius right there…….”I am the smartest guy in the room….as long as I don’t have to actually do anything”……regular FDR/Lincoln all rolled into one.

….but it gets better:

WaPo: White House forgot that they told McChrystal to defeat the Taliban
posted at 6:45 pm on December 5, 2009 by Allahpundit
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/05/wapo-white-house-forgot-that-they-told-mcchrystal-to-defeat-the-taliban/comment-page-2/#comment-3020292

To set the scene, this comes from the October 8 war room meeting on Afghanistan, with McChrystal teleconferenced in from Kabul to explain what he’d been doing since receiving his orders in March. Smart power:

In June, McChrystal noted, he had arrived in Afghanistan and set about fulfilling his assignment. His lean face, hovering on the screen at the end of the table, was replaced by a mission statement on a PowerPoint slide: “Defeat the Taliban. Secure the Population.”

But that was precisely his mission, McChrystal responded, enshrined in the Strategic Implementation Plan — the execution orders for the March strategy, written by the NSC staff.

“I wouldn’t say there was quite a ‘whoa’ moment,” a senior defense official said of the reaction around the table. “It was just sort of a recognition that, ‘Duh, that’s what in effect the commander understands he’s been told to do.’ Everybody said, ‘He’s right.’”

Already briefed on the previous day’s discussion, the president “looked at it and said, ‘To be fair, this is what we told the commander to do. Now, the question is, have we directed him to do more than what is realistic? Should there be a sharpening . . . a refinement?’ ” one participant recalled.

So after years of telling the Nation how dam# smart they were and that they had a “better plan”,the Obama administration had no idea what they wanted to do or what it would take.

But I am sure to liberals…this is the sign of a genius.

Yes We Can!!!!!

Baxter Greene on August 3, 2010 at 6:29 PM

Republicans controlled both houses then.
Bill Blizzard on August 3, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Well blizzard…you throw in the “Cheney Haliburton” drivel and you will have almost all of the Olberman/Moore talking points represented.

…….you do know that the democrats took over the House in 2006(2008 senate intelligence report was chaired by a majority of democrats)…..so your “Republicans controlled both houses” line is bogus…..not that that matters anyway….both parties have to sign off on these intelligence reports….unless you can show that Republicans somehow forced democrats to approve and sign off on these conclusions….you have no point.

The Butler Review, was boycotted by the two main opposition parties due to disagreements on its scope and independence.

The fact that the “Downing st. memo group” boycotted the Butler report does not in any way cancel out the conclusions that were reached.

…..So far you have produced ZERO facts or evidence to discount or invalidate Senate intelligence conclusions,9/11 commission,Duelfer Report,or the Butler report.

GWB created the ISG which Kay quit, stating that he believed WMD stockpiles would not be found in Iraq

Yea Blizzard….David Kay said a lot of things…like this:

David Kay:

“It was reasonable to conclude that Iraq posed an imminent threat. What we learned during the inspection made Iraq a more dangerous place potentially than in fact we thought it was even before the war.” (interview on NPR).

……David Kay is selectively quoted by liberals all the time.
The Duelfer Report stated plainly that Saddam still possessed the Hard ware and machinery to reactivate his WMD arsenal when the heat was off……
….read the FBI interrogation of Saddam before his execution….he admits that he did not think Bush would invade and was waiting for the UN to back down so that he could reconstitute his WMD program with the millions he got from the Oil for food scam.

….The UN,France intelligence,British intelligence,Australian intelligence,American intelligence,Israeli intelligence,Democrats,Republicans
believed Saddam possed WMD and was a danger…..Rockefeller and John Edwards even went so far as to declare Saddam an “Imminent threat”…….here is another liberal hero that democrats consider “the smartest man in the room”:

Speaking at the Pentagon on Feb 17, 1998, Mr. Clinton noted the following:

“Now, let’s imagine the future. What if he (Saddam) fails to comply and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route, which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction.

….I guess Bush was forcing him to say this all the way from Texas right blizzard.

Curveball, Judith Miller’s exclusive rights to him, Hearsay,

The Germans stood behind this intelligence “until” a lot of “curveballs” info was deemed wrong…..you know….after over a hundred thousand sets of boots were on the ground…..that hindsight 20/20 thing only matters to people who consider the View as a valid source of information…..
…….kind of like all the democrats who supported and voted for the Iraq war until it became a political liability…..then we heard “that big dumb Bush tricked all of us into this war”…
….how pathetic.

Stove Piping, Tenet(Presidential Medal of Freedom). In effect loose your job or back up what the admin has been falsely claiming during the lead up.

You have ZERO…and I mean ZERO….evidence to back up your lame drivel that pressure and threats were applied by Bush to make people lie about pre-war info.
As all the investigations have pointed out….the exact opposite has been proven….Bush neither lied or manipulated evidence.

Once again….if all your talking points are true….where are the charges….the impeachment….the war crime trials…..democrats had total control and power to do all of these things……
….not only have there been ZERO charges….but Obama has adopted most of Bush’s policies….Rendition,indefinite detention,NSA wiretapping,Patriot Act…….you know…all the things liberals spent 8 years yelling and screaming were “war crimes”….now that a democrat is doing them…..it’s “smart power”.

Look at Cheney’s response to J Wilson trying to shed some light. No pressure at all?

Are you seriously using Joe Wilson as some kind of credible source of information…..what’s next….Micheal Moore…..code pink…..Richard Clarke.

Joe Wilson was caught lying about what he told the Senate Committee. He told the committee that Iraq was trying to make deals for yellow cake,and then when he could score political points and try and work his way into a high level appointment from democrats…..he turned around and lied about it.
The transcripts are there for anybody to see that cares more about the truth than cut-n-paste talking points.

Blizzard…your liberal talking points mean nothing….they have been debunked time and time again along with the fact you provide nothing to substantiate your accusations.
This might work at the huffington post….but in the real world it is nothing but baseless,pathetic liberal drivel.

Baxter Greene on August 3, 2010 at 9:33 PM

Wow, you spanked him good and sent him to bed without his milk and cookies.

Interesting side-note to this story-even though all 3 of the “ABC” networks ran with the story of O’bama announcing the end of combat, only one of them cared to mention why he was doing so…because it was made possible by the Chimpy Bush troop surge that he opposed.

Del Dolemonte on August 4, 2010 at 9:38 AM

Hey…it is good to get the truth out with patriots like yourself.

I firmly believe that the Obama administration will do more for vindicating Bush than waiting for 20 years of history.

Time and the exposing of the “Hate Bush crowd” will reveal that Bush showed tremendous leadership in very serious times.
No President is perfect,but the ones who put country before politics rise to the top.

Bush deeply cared for this Nation while Obama deeply cares for himself.

Baxter Greene on August 4, 2010 at 10:00 AM