National Values

A recent letter from Congresswoman Gillibrand stated that she favors redeploying U.S. troops out of Iraq and “ultimately leaving only U.S. special forces to combat terrorists.”  

Shortly thereafter, in a speech entitled “New Strategy for a New World,” Senator Obama said: “After this redeployment, we’ll keep a residual force to perform specific missions in Iraq: targeting any remnants of al Qaeda; protecting our service members and diplomats; and training and supporting Iraq’s Security Forces, so long as the Iraqis make political progress.”

Either Obama and Gillibrand favor redeploying our troops out of Iraq, or they don’t. This is why some antiwar Democrats believe they don’t have a choice in November.

Retired Lt. Gen. William Odom used to head the National Security Agency. He said: “The concern we hear the president and his aides express about a residual base left for al-Qaida if we withdraw is utter nonsense. The Sunnis will destroy al-Qaida if we leave Iraq. The Kurds will not allow them in their region and the Shiites detest al-Qaida.”

Odom insists that Iraq is the worst place to fight a battle for regional stability and that the invasion of Iraq didn’t serve our interests, because Iran and al Qaeda benefited the most, and that continues to be true every day our forces remain there.

Invading Iraq remains the greatest strategic blunder in American history. However, Obama and Gillibrand remain stubbornly commitment to Bush’s failed strategy in Iraq. Odom points out: “History teaches us that if we understand ourselves and remain true to our own national values, the prerequisites for cultural understanding are minimized. This war is a violation of our national values.”

Looting Iraq’s oil is a national value for some voters in the 20th Congressional district. However, our only realistic chance to purge that “value,” is to reelect Gillibrand.