Obama’s Iraq Withdrawal Decision
August 15, 2014
Iraq has become a strategic and humanitarian disaster on President Obama’s watch. So he has led his administration and his surrogates in trying to revise the history of how this came to pass. It was obvious from the 2008 campaign that he intended to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq based on a political timeline instead of conditions on the ground – and without any regard for the consequences of such an action. Those consequences include an Islamist terrorist group that has taken control of large swaths of territory in Iraq and plans to use that land as a base from which to launch attacks against the west. In order to try to relieve himself of the obvious consequences of his decision, President Obama has said the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq was not his.
The president’s new claim is refuted by his own boasting over the years:
2011
“After taking office, I announced a new strategy that would end our combat mission in Iraq and remove all of our troops by the end of 2011. ... As promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year.” – Oct. 21, 2011
2012
Two years ago, “I told the American people that all our troops would be out of Iraq by the end of the following year. ... I meant what I said.” – Aug. 31, 2012
“Four years ago I promised to end the war in Iraq – and I did.” – Oct. 17, 2012
“I ended the war in Iraq.” – Oct. 23, 2012
“When I said I’d end the war in Iraq, I ended the war in Iraq.” – Nov. 3, 2012
“I said I’d end the war in Iraq – I ended it.” – Nov. 5, 2012
2013
“After I took office ... we ended the war in Iraq.” – May 23, 2013
Given all of these statements – and many more – it is outrageous that President Obama would try to duck responsibility for his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq. Yet he did just that last weekend, after the consequences of his decision had become obvious:
I “find interesting” the American people act “as if this [removal of U.S. troops from Iraq] was my decision.” – Aug. 9, 2014
In summary, President Obama has gone from claiming credit for withdrawing from Iraq to saying it was not his decision. It was clear, however, that President Obama was always single-minded on withdrawing completely from Iraq regardless of the consequences. He never had any intention of leaving behind a residual U.S. force that would have been critical to maintaining stability there. As he said in a 2012 presidential debate: “What I would not have had done was left 10,000 troops in Iraq.”
When President Obama withdrew all U.S. troops, he lost any ability to influence the political direction of Iraq. With U.S. troops no longer embedded with the Iraqi Security Forces, Prime Minister Maliki turned them into his own private security force, rather than a defender of the nation. Officers were promoted based on sectarian loyalty rather than professionalism. Suppression and abuse of minorities – and ignoring them in the political process – followed.
President Obama completely absented himself from the situation in Iraq from the beginning, handing the matter over to be handled by his vice president. Iraq (and the region) quickly saw the president’s disregard and moved to fill the power vacuum.
The abdication of leadership has consequences. In this instance, a group calling itself the Islamic State, which essentially lost its relationship with al Qaeda for being too violent, controls large amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria. Our intelligence officials tell us this group has aspirations of attacking the west.
President Obama should stop trying to avoid responsibility for his decision to withdraw completely from Iraq, and the consequences that followed from that decision, and instead focus on giving the threat that has emerged the attention it needs.