Last week Red State’s Erick Erickson posted an article titled “This Way Comes” focusing on the lies the media continues to tell about the Iraq War, especially who is to blame for the rise of ISIS. Here are a few excerpts from Erickson’s piece on the topic of Obama’s huge mistake of pulling out all U.S. Troops:
[O]bjectively, in 2009 as George W. Bush left the White House, the surge had worked, Iraq was stabilizing, Iran was on the sidelines, and ISIS did not exist.
When Barack Obama entered the White House, he had made a campaign promise to get out of Iraq. […] In fact, the Obama Administration was so intent on withdrawal, it is now both documented and accepted as fact that the Obama Administration ran from negotiating an agreement to keep American troops in Iraq. Dexter Filkins, writing in the New Yorker’s April 28, 2014, issue, documented our disastrous withdrawal.
“The leaders of all the major Iraqi parties had privately told American commanders that they wanted several thousand military personnel to remain, to train Iraqi forces and to help track down insurgents. The commanders told me that [Iraq’s Leader] Maliki, too, said that he wanted to keep troops in Iraq.… At one meeting, Maliki said that he was willing to sign an executive agreement granting the soldiers permission to stay, if he didn’t have to persuade the parliament to accept immunity. The Obama Administration quickly rejected the idea.”
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Even now the Obama Administration publicly claims Iraq did not want our troops to stay, citing the parliament’s refusal to vote. This ignores that, as the New Yorker reported, “The leaders of all the major Iraqi parties had privately told American commanders that they wanted several thousand military personnel to remain,” but feared what could happen with a public vote.
The American press has never challenged Barack Obama publicly on this mistake. The Islamic State (“ISIS”) did not not exist before the President decided to retreat from the field in Iraq, leaving a power vacuum that the President rapidly expanded by making kissy face with Iran.
Read more: Red State
Image credit: Cartoon by A.F. Branco.
