Everybody wanted us out.
There were overtures. Or something. No doubt it was a tactical "mistake". But with obama I think it was planned. He had an EZ out. The point I am trying to make is that we supposedly were trying to give the Iraqi's freedom. They chose their own sovereignty. You can't justify hindsight. You have to go with the assessment as it occurred. "Bush" put into place the US-Iraq SOFA. We should have tried to negotiate harder, sure, whatever. But the Iraqi's wanted jurisdiction over prosecuting our troops for "off-duty" crimes. I would absolutely not give them that. Keeping troops there, either by force or connivance, isn't really what we supposedly fought for, is it? They wanted their freedom. They got their freedom. And it is a shitshow. It was that before obama took office. ME islamists are only really good at one thing. Shitshows.
I have no problem with people defending their families who had members that served. My nephew served. Evan Vela Carnahan. I am not going to debate his actions here. But I will debate the way his case was handled. It is my opinion that GWB's mishandling of the entire affair from the get go (the war) is unpardonable as far as his role as POTUS. Instead of sending a message it opened up the big tent for an extravaganza that islamists excel at.
The MSM was calling the war 'another Vietnam' before the dust settled from the first units crossing the border. They pushed that premise (just as they pushed it during the Vietnam War), that somehow our guys were losing the war, and did every damned thing they could to make that happen. In VIetnam, the media undercut the Military victories, especially the destruction of the VietCong that occurred with Tet, and kept insisting to the folks back home we couldn't win. It has been the same with the War in Afghanistan and Iraq, and when the Democrats got to call the shots they made the loss official if they could. Obama is just following that pattern.
Not one conflict since Korea has had 'lines', but instead has been counterinsurgency warfare. Targets are sometimes questionable, as are the ROE, and our troops are ever at peril for doing their job. I know one Marine who quit over the ROE in Afghanistan, and have no doubt there are others, from any branch with boots on the ground. How bad that was during Bush, vs during Obama, just might be evident by the number of troops not re-upping, and the results.
It's obvious that Obama FUBAR'd a difficult situation, and our troops and the Iraqis (and a host of others) are paying the price. No current Major candidate has the military experience to carry on an extended conflict, and I have little faith that either will listen to the right people or even know when they are.
