UPDATED: On Iraq

If you’ve been following the news; Iraq is imploding and I mean badly.

There has been a good deal of ink spilled about Iraq; I’ve done a bit of that myself in the past. However, I feel the need to discuss something here: The Left. The thing the cracks me up about the left and Iraq; is that the left is still, to this day, spouting the same old tired line about Iraq: Blame Bush.  🙄

As much as I hate to admit it; Noah Rothman is absolutely correct. However, I, unlike, Noah, will tell the complete truth about it. (As a former left of center, how could I do any less?) Yes, Bush oversold the war. Yes, Bush was totally incorrect about the reasons for going into Iraq in the first place. Yes, Bush dithered on the execution of the buildup of troops, when the insurgency between Sunni and Shia began; by keeping Rumsfeld in his position for far too long.

However, President Obama has been the President of the United States since January of 2009; that is six whole years. Bush had agreements in place with the Iraqis for a residual forces. When Obama took office, Maliki changed his tune and wanted to be able to prosecute American troops according to Iraqi law; and instead of Obama trying to work with the Iraqis; he simply walked away and began withdrawing ALL forces out of Iraq. This was an epic blunder; and that blunder is all on Obama and the left cannot place that blunder on Bush at all.

The bad part is Jalal Talabani, Iraq’s current President Updated, Please see below! Maliki excluded the Sunni’s out of the Government; this caused major problems. Now, is that, in itself, Obama’s fault? No, it is not. However, President Obama could have handled this situation, a whole bunch better than he did; instead, he was gung-ho about getting out of Iraq, for political reasons and because of that, we have the situation that we do now.  To be clear; this entire thing is Obama’s baby and no amount of historical revisionism is going to change that at all.

Those who try to place the blame of this situation squarely on Bush, including left-wing bloggers; simply have no credible leg to stand on at all.

Update: I guess I should pay better attention, I was under the impression that Maliki was the President of Iraq; I was wrong. Maliki is the prime minister of Iraq and was not voted out of office. This shows you how long its been since I’ve written about Iraq! I’m over here blaming the falling apart on the wrong dude. Oopsie. Sorry about that. I shall pay more attention in the future! 😀

Update #2: A perfect example of what I am referring to is found here. National Review refutes the idiocy right here.