Obama Owns Chaos in Iraq

ObamaIraq
(tcsnews.com)

George Bush’s Iraq war is now President Obama’s Iraq war.

And this time around, the president will be fighting on two fronts: against ISIS rebels that have reportedly seized much of the country over the last week, as well as progressives who represent Obama’s political base.

BuzzFeed reports “thousands have added their names to two progressive petitions warning the president against military action in Iraq, one from San Francisco-based progressive group CREDO and the other hosted by MoveOn.org.”

“If the president takes ownership of George W. Bush’s disastrous decision to invade Iraq by launching a new round of bombing strikes, Iraq will become Barack Obama’s war,” according to the CREDO petition cited by BuzzFeed.

Some believe it already is.

The Daily Beast’s Eli Lake put the problems in Iraq into proper perspective for MSNBC host Joy Reid earlier this week. Despite Reid’s attempt to goad Lake into blaming the current situation on “neoconservatives” who served under George Bush, Lake put the blame exactly where it belongs.

From the Daily Caller:

“’You should look at all of the history,’ Lake replied, ‘including the history before 2003. … I think the way Paul Bremer made a huge mistake disbanding the Iraqi military in the way that he did.

‘But I also think it was a huge mistake that the Obama administration never used any of his leverage with (Iraqi Prime Minister) Nouri al-Maliki to try to save Maliki from his own worst tendencies,’ Lake asserted, saying Obama’s decision to reward Maliki with F-16s and other ineffective support clearly backfired.

‘It’s a very easy thing to sort of say, ‘Oh, Iraq is a mess, remember the neocons,’ he accused. ‘So in that respect, I think that – you know, yeah, they’re in the commentary now. How really relevant is it? No one is proposing ANY kind of invasion. I think the whole country is against it.’”

Regardless, “to progressives, even a limited intervention in Iraq by Obama would be a betrayal of the base that helped get him to the White House six years ago,” BuzzFeed reports.
(more…)

 

Thanks for sharing!