America and theAmerican people have paid a high price for the decision to invade Iraq andmyriad mistakes that followed. I believe that history will not judge theauthors of this war kindly.
For all these reasons,I would like nothing more than to…bring ourbrave troops home on a date certain, and spare the American people more pain,suffering and sorrow.
But having visited Iraq, I am also acutely aware that a precipitouswithdrawal of our troops, driven by congressional edict rather than therealities on the ground, will not undo the mistakes made by thisadministration. It could compound them.
It could compound them by plunging Iraq into an even deeper and, perhaps,irreparable crisis.
We must exit Iraq, but not in a way that leaves behind a securityvacuum filled with terrorism, chaos, ethnic cleansing and genocide that couldengulf large swaths of the Middle East and endanger America. We have bothmoral and national security reasons to manage our exit in a responsible way.
It\’s not acceptable toconduct a war where our goals and strategies drift aimlessly regardless of thecost in lives or dollars spent, and where we end up with arbitrary, poll-driventroop reductions by the administration–the worst of all possible outcomes.
THE QUOTE OF THE DAY
Today\’s quote comes from a very famous public figure, one you certainly know.
First the quote, then the source.
The famous public figure said these words:
Those are very wise words. The speaker shows wisdom, true introspection, and the ability to understand things as they are, even if reality means taking a different position than his/her original one.
But who said this? Who is this wise, introspective public figure?
The answer? Barack Obama. The words you just read were stated by then-Senator Obama on June 21, 2006.
How sad that President Obama ignored Senator Obama and pulled all our troops from Iraq without a residual force to hold things together, thus creating exactly the mess he warned about then. But, then again, if he had insisted on leaving a residual force in place, he could not reap the political benefit of boasting that he got all our troops out of Iraq.
President Obama wins Quote Of The Day honors for showing us that, whatever words he speaks and however compelling they sound, his political considerations will override them.
If there were still people out there who didn\’t know this about Mr. Obama….now they know.
