Things I Know About The Iraq War

Two or Three Things I Know About the Iraq War

By Scott Spiegel
In anticipation of President Barack Obama’s primetime address to the nation on the Iraq War, columnist Eugene Robinson wrote, “Now that the Iraq War is over… only one thing is clear about the outcome: We didn’t win.”

Actually, I can think of about 12 things that are clearer about the outcome of the Iraq War than the conclusion that we didn’t win:
(1) Obama was wrong about the surge.
(2) Vice President Joe Biden was wrong about the surge.
(3) President George W. Bush was right to ignore Congressional Democrats and the Iraq Study Group and order the surge in 2007.
(4) Insurgent violence dropped precipitously after the surge was implemented.
(5) If Democrats had their way on the surge in Iraq, per Harry Reid’s declaration that “this war is lost,” it would have been lost.
(6) Biden was wrong about dividing Iraq into ethnic partitions.
(7) Biden is a loon for claiming that the Iraq War could be one of the great successes of the Obama administration.
(8) Iraq is now the fourth-most politically free Middle Eastern country, after democracy Israel, republic Lebanon, and constitutional monarchy Morocco.
(9) General David Petraeus’ Iraq surge set the model for beating back insurgents and winning in Afghanistan.
(10) Despite liberals’ bleating about its expense, eight years of the Iraq War—including training and preparation for the March 2003 invasion—now turn out to have cost less ($709 billion) than Obama’s useless trillion-dollar stimulus bill.
(11) Bush’s popularity didn’t sink to the level that Obama’s is at now until late 2005, two-and-a-half years into the Iraq War and well into Bush’s second term.
(12) Obama’s address last was full of bromides, revisionist history, and platitudinous prescriptions for the future that have little relation to what will actually need to be done in the War on Terror according to a fair evaluation of conditions on the ground.

But then I’m not Eugene Robinson, who recently called those who wanted an investigation into Park51 mosque supporter Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s radical ties “loudmouths,” “fraidy-cats,” and “professional victims,” dismissed Tea Partiers as racists, and called Dr. Alveeda King a “puppet” for appearing at Glen Beck’s Restoring Honor rally.

Oh, and: (13) If anyone deserves to give a triumphal speech marking the end of combat operations in Iraq, it is Bush, Petraeus, Vice President Dick Cheney, or Kermit the Frog—anyone but Obama, who opposed the war from the start and voted as U.S. senator to defund it.

And: (14) Obama has learned nothing about the danger of prematurely promising to remove our troops by a certain date and the fortifying effect this has on our enemy, as demonstrated by his declaration in his speech that we will begin removing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 according to his preordained schedule, and by his standing commitment to remove all 50,000 troops still stationed in Iraq by the end of 2011. . . See entire column here

---

Blog author's comments - I obviously thought the above column was worth reading. It was different to see a column on the Iraq War that gave Bush credit for some of the decisions he made.

I will add that Obama is totally wrong for our country and I cannot imagine anyone who could be worse. Biden is also incompetent, but this is no surprise. Look at how many inept 'lawmakers' have been elected to the House and Senate and remain there for decades.

I am also disappointed in the upsurge of liberal voters we now have in the country. With the liberal mindset so many voters and lawmakers have, we will become a weaker society. The country can also expect a greater chance for more terrorist attacks. Do you believe Obama is worried about this? I don't think he is, not when he announces to the enemy in Afghanistan when the U.S. troops will be pulled from the country.

George W. Bush was not the president I thought he would be. Bush made many mistakes and disappointed me many times. Bush was not a true conservative.

I do believe Bush was a person who cared for the country and it's people. I do not believe this about our current Commander In Chief. If I could trade what Obama has done to the country in less than two years for eight more years of George W. Bush, would I do it? You Betcha!

Via:Conservative Outpost
Cartoon by Michael Ramirez

Obama's Failed Stimulus Cost More Than Iraq War

Obama's Failed Stimulus Program Cost More Than The Iraq War

Washington Examiner
By: Mark Tapscott0 - 8/23/2010

Expect to hear a lot about how much the Iraq war cost in the days ahead from Democrats worried about voter wrath against their unprecedented spending excesses.

The meme is simple: The economy is in a shambles because of Bush's economic policies and his war in Iraq. As American Thinker's Randall Hoven points out, that's the message being peddled by lefties as diverse as former Clinton political strategist James Carville, economist Joseph Stiglitz, and The Nation's Washington editor, Christopher Hayes.

The key point in the mantra is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war. Well, it was expensive to be sure, in both blood and treasure, but, as Hoven notes, the CBO puts the total cost at $709 billion.

To put that figure in the proper context of overall spending since the war began in 2003, Hoven provides this handy CBO chart showing the portion of the annual deficit attributable to the conflict.

But there is much more to be said of this data and Hoven does an admirable job of summarizing the highlights of such an analysis:

* Obama's stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion (15%) more.

* Just the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.

* The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion). . . Entire column

---

Blog author's comments - From now until the November elections the Obama administration along with most liberals and the 'Drive-By' media, will be pushing the same spin - the reason the economy is so bad is the fault of the Bush administration and the Iraq war. You will also hear them say... the Democrats have the country on a path towards an economic recovery.

This is what these people do best. They have no answers or ideas to begin to help our economy so they play the 'blame game', backed by the MSM. I will admit that the Iraq war cost this country quite a lot both in troop loss and money and is the reason we now have Barack Obama as the president.

Bush and company should have done a better job at running the war. This was the ammunition for the MSM to batter the Republican party and they were successful in helping to sway many voters to vote for the Democrats. The voting Democrats and liberals along with some so-called Republicans would have voted for anyone who received the nomination of the Democrat party.

But...now it is time for the Republican party to bounce back. The conservative members of our society must use the ballot box to speak out concerning this very serious and outrageous plan Obama has to change and remake our country. We cannot let this continue.

We either do it in November or it is over. If the Republican party cannot regain enough power with the mid-term elections, I do not want to even think about the consequences this country will face.