Senator Obama on Iraq
Senator Obama recognized that the war in Iraq was wrong from its conception. Unfortunately, Obama continues to avoid the heart of the matter.
Obama recognized that there was not an imminent threat of weapons of mass destruction and that it was overstated. He says many in Congress demonstrated a lack of judgment by not anticipating that, once we went into Iraq, it would be very difficult to get out. The question was not whether we could overcome Saddam Hussein‘s army, but what would happen once we were there. Obama foresaw the possibility that the invasion would inflame anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East and distract us from the fight that we still have not finished in Afghanistan.
Obama insists: “We have no good options in Iraq left. We have got bad options and worse options. He believes the best option is to make certain that we begin a phased redeployment, that we’re as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.”
Obama favors bringing our troops home, and sending a signal to the Iraqi people and the warring factions that there is not going to be a military solution to their problems, because there are only political accommodations to be had.
We should be talking to countries like Iran and Syria and let them know that they’re going to have to take some responsibility in keeping a lid on this situation. Obama expects to create a regional framework that allows us to scale back our commitments and start bringing our troops home.
Obama believes that Bush’s biggest problem is that he is driven by ideology, as opposed to fact. Bush isn’t concerned with what’s happening on the ground, because he has certain ideas and hopes that the world will conform to his ideas. Senator Obama points out that unfortunately, events have not conformed to Bush’s ideas. Americans were told that we would be greeted as liberators, which didn’t happen. We heard that this would only take a few months and cost us a few billion dollars, but it didn’t happen.
Iraqi oil has been the heart of the matter for the military industrial complex from the very beginning. The occupation of Iraq has been a tremendous success for “those masters of men.”
They would be wise to recall the last line of Dalton Trumbo’s timeless antiwar masterpiece “Johnny Got His Gun”: “You plan the wars you masters of men and point the way and we will point the gun.”
Obama recognized that there was not an imminent threat of weapons of mass destruction and that it was overstated. He says many in Congress demonstrated a lack of judgment by not anticipating that, once we went into Iraq, it would be very difficult to get out. The question was not whether we could overcome Saddam Hussein‘s army, but what would happen once we were there. Obama foresaw the possibility that the invasion would inflame anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East and distract us from the fight that we still have not finished in Afghanistan.
Obama insists: “We have no good options in Iraq left. We have got bad options and worse options. He believes the best option is to make certain that we begin a phased redeployment, that we’re as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.”
Obama favors bringing our troops home, and sending a signal to the Iraqi people and the warring factions that there is not going to be a military solution to their problems, because there are only political accommodations to be had.
We should be talking to countries like Iran and Syria and let them know that they’re going to have to take some responsibility in keeping a lid on this situation. Obama expects to create a regional framework that allows us to scale back our commitments and start bringing our troops home.
Obama believes that Bush’s biggest problem is that he is driven by ideology, as opposed to fact. Bush isn’t concerned with what’s happening on the ground, because he has certain ideas and hopes that the world will conform to his ideas. Senator Obama points out that unfortunately, events have not conformed to Bush’s ideas. Americans were told that we would be greeted as liberators, which didn’t happen. We heard that this would only take a few months and cost us a few billion dollars, but it didn’t happen.
Iraqi oil has been the heart of the matter for the military industrial complex from the very beginning. The occupation of Iraq has been a tremendous success for “those masters of men.”
They would be wise to recall the last line of Dalton Trumbo’s timeless antiwar masterpiece “Johnny Got His Gun”: “You plan the wars you masters of men and point the way and we will point the gun.”
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