But sometimes peoples do want our presence. Before Obama withdrew from Iraq, the Sunni tribal leaders, the Kurds and the majority of Shiites begged the U.S. to stay. Why? Because they knew the country would turn into a battleground between Sunni radicals and Iran if we did. U.S. military leaders and intelligence knew it too and told Obama that. But he left anyway, claiming “victory” as he did.
Iraqi PM al-Maliki refused to renew the status of forces agreement that expired in 2011. the Obama Administration proceeded with the plan to withdraw American forces from Iraq (barring some last-minute move in the Iraqi parliament when they were to return from a break in late November 2011, shortly before the end-of-the-year withdrawal date) because of concerns that they would not be given immunity from Iraqi courts. This was a concern of American commanders as well.
I would even go beyond that:
They did ask us to leave. Seems like tough spot either way. As best I can figure out has taken the US decades to pacify and rebuild nations. But I think we ( myself included) were blinded by the opinion we shouldn’t have went in to begin with. We shouldn’t have gone in, but we broke it (Iraq), so we have to fix it.
Couldn’t agree more!
And that has been a consistent problem for the U.S., we tend to see the glass half full when building alliances or supporting governments.
Even Obama’s own former Secretary of Defense disputes that. Obama refused the troops deemed by all to be necessary to maintain the peace, then demanded that the Iraqi parliament affirm extraterritoriality for a force everybody deemed inadequate, including the iraqi parliament, Obama’s own generals, intelligence people and the Defense Secretary. Even so, Maliki offered a “presidential” agreement. But Obama wouldn’t take it.
I don’t like such questions since analysis frequently excludes the emotional tones that were key factors. Defending Kuwait was fairly straight forward, and we did stop before bringing down regime change. Understandably, we had a different attitude and where more ‘on-edge’ post 9/11. Much less likely to suffer fools with blatant disregard for UN directives.
With hindsight, we’d probably do a lot more covert assassinations, starting with Hitler
.Hard to say about the oil considering OPEC isn’t very forthcoming with how much each member state has in the ground so who knows how long it will last and/or be available us. Yah, at the end of the day its about the oil. If there were no resources to grab we would have never gone there in the first place. Makes me wonder what would happen if N. Korea had something of value. I read about the oppression and inhumane treatment of their people and can’t understand how that nation was allowed to break off to begin with and why the U.S. and it’s allies allow it to exist the way it is. They can obliterate S. Korea at will if they choose but we are all over the back of Iran who MAY or MAY not be close to having a W.M.D.
Keeping a token tripwire force wad the most the American people would accept, and even that was a hard sell. Robert Gates (a Republic [sic] Bush holdover) didn’t have to answer to American people, and the brass always wants more of everything. As for a “presidential” agreement from al-Maliki, that and $2.65 will get you a gallon of gasoline. Iraq, like “South Vietnam” could not be kept on life support forever. Sooner or later you have to pull the plug, and the patient either breathes on his own or dies.
Dr. Strangelove never met a war he didn’t like.
Don’t forget North Korea is China’s monkey. We can’t ‘fix’ them unless we went to war with China (most likely). Didn’t China even give them their nuclear technology?
Maybe, but I suspect their worst nightmare is a leaderless NK (with nukes) that’s running amok, with refugees and bandits pouring across its border. And South Korea would have a devil of a time trying to absorb the North Korean mess–much, much worse than Germany had with the DDR.
Well we are not touching China EVER considering we owe them tons of debt. It would be like accusing a creditor of unfair business practices and hoping they don’t try to collect on the debt or raise the interest rate. China owns us and we let that happened. Favored trade nation status! Ugghh!
While we will never go completely off of oil we are I the verge of learning our dependence. A large number of GM cars on the road today can use e85. Solar panels, electric cars, and plug in hybrids are in the verge of affordability too. These will drop the transport sector’s use of oil dramatically within my lifetime. Without transport, the oil produced in the US and Canada is enough to drive down prices.
There was no “hard sell” or any other kind of sell of maintaining the victory won in Iraq. Even Al Quaeda admitted it had lost. Even Leon Panetta, Obama’s own appointee to Defense and a lifelong Democrat, said Obama didn’t try to obtain a status of forces agreement or follow the advice of the military or intelligence. Obama himself, in the presidential debate with Romney, said the same thing in a different way. When Romney charged him with not trying to obtain a status of forces agreement to keep 10,000 troops in Iraq, Obama said he wasn’t interested in that, he was interested in getting out.
China is being swindled out of a great deal of what it has gained in terms of American debt, which is why China is reducing its holdings of the same.
Those are strong statements. You’ll need to cite what you’ve posted, for credibility sake. Anyhow, I’m not “indignant or righteous”, I’m just glad that Americans are no longer being maimed or killed there. Remember, we’re a republic, not an empire. And we shouldn’t be Team America World Police. Moreover, you should realize the “victory” was was accomplished by buying off Sunnis who were mad that we overthrew their meal ticket. As for AQ, they’re not the ones who took Rhamadi, are they?