I have finally figured out the Obama Doctrine: Screw up the hard fought gains handed him by George W. Bush.
President Bush left office with al Qaeda desperately trying to blend in with camel herds in the desert and Iraq mostly pacified. Today, none of that is true.
The newspapers are reporting this morning that al Qaeda is in control of Fallujah. What an awful, searing irony.
Hundreds of American service members were killed and wounded during three battles that finally resulted in complete victory and the United States turning Fallujah over to Iraqi control in 2007. But the very Islamist insurgents we removed from Fallujah are back and, for now, running the place.
It’s heartbreaking to think of the sacrifices our armed forces made being squandered. What’s more, squandered at the very moment this disengaged president putts away in Hawaii.
Obama once tried to claim Bush’s Iraq success as his own. “Today – even as terrorists try to derail Iraq’s progress – because of the sacrifices of our troops and their Iraqi partners, violence in Iraq continues to be near the lowest it’s been in years,” Obama declared in 2010 as he touted his head-for-the-exits-at-all-costs strategy.
Obama eventually decided to leave a token force of 3,000 troops in Iraq, far fewer than commanders on the ground thought prudent. The Iraqis decided that Obama’s pittance wasn’t worth the political grief they’d get for having Americans roaming around their country, and so they said he could keep them.
I predicted in 2011 that Obama’s dash for the exit was a mistake that would result in continued violence and threats to U.S. interests.
But Obama sought to frame the failure to keep any troops at all in Iraq as a grand success, hoping to turn it into political gold. He made sure to email his campaign list to proclaim that he ended the Iraq war:
When I came into office, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end. As Commander in Chief, I ended our combat mission last year and pledged to keep our commitment to remove all our troops by the end of 2011 . . . This is a significant moment in our history.
Leaving 10,000-15,000 troops in Iraq would have been hard, but it would have been worth it to check Iran’s influence in the country and help the Iraqis keep al Qaeda under wraps. In other places where we’ve been victorious in war, we’ve left troops and it’s worked.
But Obama doesn’t understand this. He doesn’t get that we’re in a struggle with Islamists who can’t be pacified and who aspire to kill thousands of our citizens – millions if possible.
I don’t think Obama is particularly interested in foreign policy. He wants to focus on cementing socialism in the United States, and he hopes the bad guys will just go away.
Well they don’t go away unless we keep the pressure on them. And unless we kill them when we have to.
Thats what our men and women did in Fallujah. I mourn for those who died or were wounded in the horrific battles for the city, and for those who today are watching as their heroic effort is wasted by this president.
43 thoughts on “Fallujah Falls”
Pissing on the graves of all the brave men and women, both American and Iraqi, who died kikcing out the enemy.
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Our troops won’t call him on it to his face–they’d get in military trouble if they did–but those of us who care about our troops have a right to ask.
Mr. President, how many of our Nation’s best lost limbs, got PTSD, or came home in flag-draped caskets, to defend your ability to voluntarily throw away and dishonor that very same sacrifice they made?
SHAME ON YOU, SIR!!!
Ba-ravo!
I take a different stand–if we left 15,000, one foot in there, it would have led to more casualties in what was not really our sphere of influence. Go ahead–pounce on me. I don’t care. Yes, Falluja is a loaded word–so many fought there…but 15,000 would not have done the trick to get what…a front line against Iran…a real deterrent?
How soon before A
How soon before AQ rules a wide swath of land, from Syria to the Iranian border? How soon before AQ takes on Jordan?
The so-called Caliphate? I don’t know–do you? I sure know long, grinding military actions leaving behind a token force is not going to prevent Islamists from claiming the countries where they live.
I wouldn’t call 15,000 troops “token”. For one thing, it’s far easier to insert more troops and materiel into a region in which you already have a presence.
Going back to “so-called Caliphate”. Yes, it is a goal of Islamists of all stripes. But, they don’t want just their present lands. They want the entire world under their false-god’s boot.
Spot on MM. 15k troops can’t do too much offensively, but are essential to any offensive. Now we have nothing…no logistics, FOB, intel, staging… By the time negotiations are in place and boots are on the ground the reason for sending troops might well be moot.
Get all of them out of there.
Get them back home.
The NSA will give us the alert to any problems on the horizon.
No more offensives!! We ramp up again (which will never happen, by the way) and then more smashed up young people, then leave, then this happens again. Hopeless task.
Sunnis v Shi-ites–clan v clan–how can this be our fight or one that we could even learn and make a difference in?
I agree completely and commented here the other day to someone to that effect, that Obama has abandoned Iraq just for the spiteful motive of attacking anything that GWB has ever done. Not only did over 4,000 Americans give their lives in Iraq many more than that were damaged physically and mentally. Think of all the Iraqis who gave their
support to the US and have now been abandoned. No wonder no one in the world likes us or trusts us. Obama has a track record of abandoning our friends and allies.
The irony is that Obama also went after GWB on Afghanistan too. Bush had pretty much pulled out, and then early in his first term, Obama decided to make his famous ‘surge’ there. And look at the state of Afghanistan now.
Isn’t it terrible than one man can destroy millions of lives just out of hate towards the man who preceded him?
Reading through the posts following mine, I have to agree with AFVet, Star and Susan on one point: we can no longer play world policeman or play one nation off another nation or whatever the hell we’re doing. This is one issue on which I admire Rand Paul and the Libertarians. However, having said that, I still think once we committed so much death and destruction in Iraq and led so many Iraqis down the primrose path, we were bound to driving Al Qaeda out of the region and defeating them. It is immoral just to say oops as Obama has done. Our historical ties with Israel also demands it.
Just don’t start any new adventures to look commander-in-chiefy.
This is what happens when you elect a community organizer to do a man’s job.
The miserable, incompetent SOB could care less. Another feather in the cap of all the misguided miserable SOBs who re-elected this idiot.
Oh, what mess this President has made of things, domestic and foriegn.
I’m OK with no troops in Iraq, and the sooner we bring them home from every XXXX-stan the better. What the heck are we doing in places like Sudan, anyway?
For that matter, we can close our bases in Italy, Germany, and every other place in the world that isn’t ours.
Our role as the protector of the poor, the downtrodden, and tyrannized should be over. We can’t fix everything and everyone.
It’s ‘star wars weaponry’ time, not destroyers or submarine warfare. Our enemies are walking across our border, arriving at our airports, and moving into our cities across the country. The fight for survival of our country is right here on our soil.
As for the Islamist nations and their penchant for killing each other over who’s in charge or who’s Koran is the right one, MrsPalin said it best; let Allah sort it out.
There are some thing that are still best managed with direct presence in a country. However, randomly scattering forces about chasing dust devils is flawed. Point is Oboutme is the Worst. CIC. EVER.
What good are bases in Europe when Oboutme is too stupid to use the resources (benghazi)? We need to stop subsidizing Europe and move resources to Africa where they can be used directly in protecting freedom.
Get them out of Afghanistan too.
Bring them all home because the mission isn’t worth the lives that will be lost by the time Obama pays any attention to the situation.
I believe that we cannot defend this country by withdrawal or isolation. But this President’s incompetence only endangers them far from home. Bring them home.
Well said, srdem. The battleground is here at home in America. Time for all our soldiers to return home.
You cannot protect and defend this country by withdrawing from the world. Look at the current situation in the ME as a result of Obama’s unwillingness to act. Terrorism has flourished. And they are coming here.
Well, taking it to them “there” did not prevent various things that happened here, no matter how many text messages the NSA hoarded away.
I agree. Islamic countries are not worth saving. Concentrate on keeping the enemy out of the West! I don’t give a damn if the muslims kill each other off in their interminable tribal conflicts. These people neither appreciate nor want democracy. “Nation building” is a lost cause.
I have to disagree with you Keith.
Have you ever served ?
I say, get them all out of that cockroach nest, and let them settle it themselves.
Vietnam is an example.
We got the hell out,…after how many lives lost ?
Oh the politicians have lofty visions of establishing democratic governments in these poor backward countries.
However, the stupid politicians are not involved in the process of actually confronting people that behead people, blow people and themselves up, still maintain tribal mantras that have existed for eons and still to this day drive the massacre of thousands of people that are innocent and just want peace to live their lives as they wish.
Sarah Palin said it well,…”let Allah sort it out.”
I agree with her.
Get our military men and women back here and if they hit us again bomb the hell out of them.
They can only confront us on the ground.
They have no Air Force, or Navy.
Why is it necessary to engage them on the only level that they can compete ?
I for one am tired of barbarians pissing on US.
Outstanding post, Keith. The actions and behavior of this fraud has brought shame and disgrace on America. Just as planned. Preezy Revenge is killing two birds with one stone by abandoning Iraq as he did. He extracted revenge on the much hated George W. Bush, and helped out his Islamist comrades at the same time. He doesn’t care about the blood and treasure America sacrificed in liberating Iraq. The maiming of their bodies and souls, or their untimely deaths “were not optimal”, but there are always “bumps in the road” on the way to the left’s progressive utopia.
Never forget what this fraud said to the UN assembly on September 25, 2012, just two weeks after four Americans were butchered by Islamist monsters in Benghazi:
“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” – Barrack Hussein Obama
I say get all of our troops back to safe places and let the Islamic tribal factions destroy themselves.
Is it worth it to sacrifice patriotic lives for political purposes ?
The defense of this Country is what they signed up for, giving their lives over to a CIC that couldn’t care less about them.
It’s a crime.
Agree with the war or not, America should have kept the commitment she made to Iraq. We did not not keep our commitment because our leader has no virtue. I agree – time to bring them all home. We need them here to help defend the homefront.
I am just as concerned with the issue of our Country. Keith mentioned Socialism. Something has to be done.
I don’t know what is going to happen within the next 3 years, to give him more push for more Executive Orders to proceed in even more control over us. If I didn’t have children, maybe just maybe I would say I give up. Let everyone else worry about it.
With the outcry from fellow citizens regarding the action of the TV station punishing the man from Duck Dynasty. A&E backed off.
As long as everyone says: Oh its OK if they listen in on my telephone call, I am not doing anything wrong, it will get worse and more controlling.
EVERYONE: Stop: Go back 20 years. Back than if some one would have asked you if the citizens of America would lay back and allow this process to roll, Would everyone comply with the process as we are?
Than there is an issue of our little children of America. Being told in California that they can use any bathroom the want. These little kids don’t know the facts of life yet.
Obama couldn’t dishonor those who fought more if he spit on their flag draped caskets.
Didn’t he already do that to the four caskets from Benghazi?
I don’t get how preventing more deaths and maiming is dishonoring. The war is what is was, the end of the war is what it is.
I do not know what the answer is, to keep troops over in Iraq and Afghanistan or to just bring them home and let the the people there have at it. Part of me feels we should bring them home yet another part of me feels it dishonors those who gave their lives. This poem was written by a young man who served with our friend’s son. Despite the gruesome tragedies of war, these young men were also proud of their accomplishments to help people in the villages, stories that were never reported by the MSM.
Hugs and kisses and tears that glisten
come from the families as they listen
to their young men tell of a foreign land
that they must go to and free men from an evil hand
Hunger and poverty that must be changed
these Warriors move to oust Sadaam Hussein
These men who act and ask nothing in return
put their lives on the line to help a country turn
from oppression, tyranny, and a government of lies,
to opportunity, freedom, and a chance for better lives.
These valiant young men of America’s youth
Bust down the barriers to show the people the truth
of how life should be lived in the world today
to have a life that’s free is the American way.
– Ray Joseph Hutchinson
101st Airborne Screaming Eagles 2/502
Killed in Action December 7, 2003 Iraq
God Bless Him
Salute to a patriot. Rest in peace and God keep you close, Ray Joseph Hutchinson.
Thank you, Lee and Susan. I was horrified when I read that the AQ flag flies over Fallujah. So many gave so much and now for what? I agree with MM, Obama is pissing on their graves.
Looking at this and our welfare nation , never is it more clear that Freedom is not Free, is falling on deaf ears.
To have to acknowledge Barack Obama as president is both insulting and galling to the USA and especially those who have sacrificed so much in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I truly wish he would just vanish back to whatever mother ship dropped him on us.
If I remember correctly, Obama sent Biden to Iraq to negotiate a status of forces agreement with the Iraq government as we were preparing to wind down. Ideally, the agreement would have left a contingent of US troops to stabilize the country and keep the lid on the Jihadists. Of course, Biden failed miserably, and here we are. You have to wonder if Obama’s instructions to Biden were to purposely fail in his task. I vote that was the case.
! Agree. And today Fallujah and AQ. I don’t think there was ever any real intent to have a status of forces agreement with a contingent of troops left to maintain — especially the situation in ME. Obama in a rush to get out and concentrate on the “right” war Afghanistan — where we have suffered more casualties and deaths on his negligent watch than previous years.
Someone better tell the US Marines…
Fallujah has become part of their proud battle history.
Well, that would still be true, wouldn’t it? I lost friends in Vietnam and now I watch Americans apt-shop in Ho Chi Min City on HGTV. Times change.
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