Obama in Baghdad, tells troops Iraq must take over

BAGHDAD (AP) - Cheered wildly by U.S. troops, President Barack Obama flew unannounced into Iraq on Tuesday and promptly declared it was time for Iraqis to “take responsibility for their country” after America’s commitment of six years and thousands of lives.

“You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country,” the president said as he made a brief inspection of a war he opposed as candidate and now vows to end as commander in chief. “That is an extraordinary achievement.”

A total of 4,265 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Iraq since March 2003, and Obama said American forces had “performed brilliantly … under enormous strain.”

“It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis,” he said as an estimated 600 troops cheered. “They need to take responsibility for their country.”

Full Story Here:
Obama in Baghdad, tells troops Iraq must take over

Now don’t go getting the wrong idea, I haven’t become an Obama supporter. Anyone that has read this blog for any length of times knows, I never thought we needed to be in Iraq to begin with. I left no doubt regarding my feelings concerning Iraqi Freedom, our part in it, and all the hows and whys of it coming to be.

I blasted President Bush for this on a nearly daily basis. I have always felt that Iraq was his little fit of anger, his personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein. I felt that our venture into Iraq was going to take away from our efforts in Afghanistan, the place where I felt the battle truly was, and exactly where we needed to be. The right place, the right time and the right people. I felt that our Global War on Terror was best focused there, against the people that had attacked us, NOT against a tyrant that had simply pissed off our President.

I may be wrong but I honestly believe that this little foray into Iraq by Obama was a politically motivated trip, one designed to focus on the CiC and his love of the troops. Sorry, I almost choked just typing that. This trip was made in an attempt to take the focus off of other pressing issues in the USA, the budget, the bailouts, the obvious desecration of the constitution by the Obama administration, things like that.

Make no mistake about it, I would be thrilled to see each and every one of our troops OUT of Iraq, the sooner the better. I also feel that once our troops are out of Iraq, we will see the nation of Iraq fall into the most deadly and destructive civil war imaginable. I believe we will see Iraq fall into a condition of decay, corruption, violence and totalitarianism that would shock even Saddam himself. I believe we will see Iraq fall into a condition similar to that of Somalia.

This may surprise some of you, but I honestly don’t care what happens to Iraq after we are gone. Iraq is NOT an ally, they have no real value other than as a supply of oil, and I don’t believe that the Iraqis can be trusted any more than any other group of Muslims.

George Bush led us down a road we didn’t need to travel, a case that has been proven several times over. We have lost 4,265 U.S. troops dead to date, and I have no idea regarding the numbers maimed. We have spent untold BILLIONS of U.S. tax dollars to get to this point in time where President Obama says, “You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country.”

I agree with Obama on this, it IS time, and this IS their opportunity. I only hope that our efforts, the loss of life, limb and fortune, were not in vain.