What Obama ACTUALLY said about Iraq [View all]

[berni_mccoy]

"Moreover, Russia has pointed to America’s decision to go into Iraq as an example of Western hypocrisy. Now, it is true that the Iraq War was a subject of vigorous debate not just around the world, but in the United States as well. I participated in that debate and I opposed our military intervention there. But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people and a fully sovereign Iraqi state that could make decisions about its own future."

Fact: He is Not Defending the Iraq War. In fact he is saying it was WRONG.

Evidence: "Iraq War was a subject of vigorous debate"
The Iraq War was not supported by even the people of the U.S. and the President calls that out.

Evidence: "But even in Iraq"
When you are defending a wrong doing, you don't say, "but even in this situation"... that is total admission it was wrong. Even though it was wrong, America still tried to follow some international laws. Note that he didn't say we did, he said we sought to, and everyone here knows that seeking International support wasn't a high priority of the Bush Administration, but it was of Democrats in Congress.

Evidence: "I opposed our military intervention there."
He didn't agree with the war. Even someone who didn't agree an action will avoid making a statement like this if they felt they were wrong about it. But he still feels as if the war was wrong, so he says this.

These statements are not defending the war, but actually saying that it was wrong.

W.r.t. to Annexation, some here say we installed the government there. While that was originally true, much has changed in Iraq since then. No one can reasonably argue that what we did was the same Russia annexing Crimea.

W.r.t. the resource grab, it is true we went to war in Iraq because of Oil. The highly respected Rachel Maddow did a great documentary on this and the facts she uncovered there, I think we can safely say are widely accepted here and even known before she did her documentary. But if you watched her documentary, you will learn that we actually did not take the oil for ourselves. It was kept under the management of the Iraqi government's state-run oil industry, not handed over to privatization by oil companies, and the oil was delivered to the global market. This is not my fact finding, this is Rachel Maddow's fact-finding.

So to say Obama is defending the Iraq war is being as dishonest as a piece of shit used car salesmen.

To say Obama is saying Iraq is better than Russia's aggressive actions in Crimea is also inaccurate.

Obama is saying simply that these two things cannot be legitimately compared. And he is directing that statement at Putin.

It is not a validation of the war. It is not rewriting history. It is not a reason for many people here to disrespectfully attack the President.