For all his posturing, for all his claims to support them, for all his claims to want them out of Iraq immediately (that was what he wanted before he changed to a sensible withdraw) and for all his claims that he is looking out for them the reality is that the troops are pawns to Barack Obama.
Obama likes to tell everyone he opposed the war from the start. He didn’t oppose it when he was campaigning for John Kerry and praised the Senator and his tough decisions, blah, blah. Nonetheless, his claim of change, and one that made him different in the primary, is that he could make the claim that he always opposed the war because he was not in office when it was voted upon. No one really knows how he would have voted since he votes with Democrats 97% of the time.
One thing is certain though, Obama has little regard for the troops. He ignored the wounded when he went overseas. He could have visited them but chose not to. There are no excuses because there is NEVER an excuse to not visit our wounded. A leader would know that.
Obama talks a good game but word out of Iraq is that Barack Obama tried to convince the Iraqis not to broker any kind of draw down of US troops until the next administration was in office. As he campaigns he says he wants them out quickly (but responsibly) and that he will negotiate to get them out and let the Iraqis take control of their own destiny. However, in private he was busy trying to swing back room deals with the Iraqi government not to make any deals with President Bush.
WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.
According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.
“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.
Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops – and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”
“However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open.” Zebari says.
Though Obama claims the US presence is “illegal,” he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the “weakened Bush administration,” Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate.
While in Iraq, Obama also tried to persuade the US commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to suggest a “realistic withdrawal date.” They declined. New York Post
This is nothing more than Obama playing politics with our troops. He does not want the Bush Administration to receive any credit for getting this done and Obama is worried that it might give republicans a leg up in the election especially when one considers that Obama was tragically wrong on the surge. It has been the opposite of all the doom and gloom failure that Obama predicted. His opposition and incorrect predictions demonstrated how inexperienced he is for the job of Commander in Chief.
We have business to conduct whether or not there is an election going on. If the Bush administration is working to end the war or move into another phase it should not be a political issue for Obama. If Congress should be involved then let the do-nothings currently in Congress get involved. We do not have to wait for the next administration for Congress to get involved..
Barack Obama can say anything he wants but in the end he is just another politician who does not care about anything but winning. John Kerry said the troops were stupid and Obama thinks they are pawns in a giant chess game.
And this guy wants to be their boss.
No thanks.
