Bush Was Right On Iraq

In light of the President's hollow address to the nation about actions to be taken against ISIL, I must remind you all what has transpired before. The President tried to sound presidential, but to me it sounded like the same old rhetoric he's been spewing since he took office. Strong sounding words that have no real steel behind them convinces no one.

Despite the continuation of the tired old canard “Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq!”, Dubya comes across as a man who understood what was really needed in Iraq, particularly in light of what has transpired there since Obama withdrew all our troops. With the exception of some support troops to help secure the US embassy and to train Iraqi army forces, they're all gone. What Obama chose to ignore was a State Of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government which has led to the rise of Iraq as a new haven for the brutal extremist Islamic State.

George W. Bush warned back in 2007 that premature withdrawal of US troops from Iraq would have dire consequences. He was right.

When former President George W. Bush makes a rare visit to Washington today, he won’t criticize President Obama for the bloodletting Obama unleashed with his withdrawal from Iraq. After leaving office, Bush promised Obama his silence. He is a man of his word.

But if Bush did speak out, here is what he ought to say:

I told you so.

In the summer of 2007...all of Washington was telling Bush that the surge he had launched would fail and that the time had come to withdraw from Iraq and accept defeat.

At a White House news conference on July 12, 2007, Bush declared: “I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now. To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we’re ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al-Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.”

He knew even back then what we would face of American resolve crumbled, and it did, starting with his successor and spreading through the rest of his administration. They weren't in this struggle for the long haul. They just declared victory and withdrew our troops. Now the price of those actions is being paid with the lives of innocents. The price we'll have to pay when we end up having to go back will be greater than the one we paid when we defeated Saddam's regime and then fought off Al Qaeda in Iraq, taking down a majority of their leadership and ushering in a prolonged period of peace. But because we left prematurely, a large power vacuum was left behind and the sectarian bloodshed restarted. It also gave ISIL a chance to develop into something heinous and outright effin' evil.

Obama's continuing shortsightedness has put us into peril and he's acting like all we have to to is throw tough sounding words at a brutal and debased opponent and all will be fine.

What a putz.