Barack Obama: ‘Milking’ the Iraq War for All it’s Worth (Azzaman, Iraq)
Dec 28th, 2011 | 6 responses
How sorry is the present state of Iraq – and how bitter do some Iraqis feel about the consequences of the U.S. invasion and withdrawal? For Iraq’s Azzaman, columnist Fateh Abdulsalam accuses President Obama of brazenly using the Iraq withdrawal to his political advantage and leaving the country ‘with a government reveling in the joys of its own corruption and the opportunistic use of the symbols of office to attain personal privilegeS and self aggrandizement.’
For Azzaman, Fateh Abdulsalam writes in part:
The occupation of Iraq has always been a profitable commodity for U.S. President Obama: He who snatched the presidency in January of 2009, reaching the post by holding high the banner “Withdraw from Iraq.” Today he’s back on the same theme, turning the withdrawal into a campaign issue, saying “I ended the war in Iraq.”
The approximately ten years and immense amounts of money that the U.S. has spent is enough to have completely rebuilt both Iraq and Afghanistan from scratch – and with plenty left over to repair laughably-inept public services that were never restored. We saw how they [Western media] portray the lack of electricity as so huge, even the superpower United States as unable to resolve it.
America is leaving behind a country with a government reveling in the joys of its own corruption and the opportunistic use of the symbols of office to attain personal privileges and self aggrandizement.
Out of either a lack of concern or criminal negligence, Iraqi officials pay little heed to a people burdened by their wounds, with ten percent of the population lost on the altar of freedom, security and honor – none of which have yet to be achieved. Yet out of sight of the Iraqi people, the government continues to beg the Americans to coordinate security and intelligence to protect them – rather than the people who alone paid the price with the government’s sword perched above their heads – and now with the U.S. withdrawal, an even threatening sword above.
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6 Responses to “Barack Obama: ‘Milking’ the Iraq War for All it’s Worth (Azzaman, Iraq)”
They accuse Obama but say nothing about the Republican Reagan administration who gave biological agents to Saddam, which he promptly used on Iran and his own people.
Who do these people think they are anyway? They welcomed our troops at the fall of Baghdad then turned against us, Shia and Sunni alike. I could care less what happens to them now.
We’re broke, try Arab_Spring.com.
“The occupation of Iraq has always been a profitable commodity for U.S. President Obama”
That’s like saying the dog you never really wanted in the first place but got anyway in the divorce settlement has been a terrific companion.
Mr. A suggests that the U.S. went into Iraq and Afghanistan in order to gain power and influence in the region. Has he looked at what our supposed gain is like? Does he really think that our purpose was to remain there, when we have been looking for ways to leave ever since 2003?
His vitriol reminds me of the idiots who claimed that we went into Iraq to get their oil. Really? To get their oil? Then why didn’t we take it?
I understand the fear that the Iraqi people have. Some of them (maybe many) believe that with the U.S. forces gone, a civil war or (at the least) large sectarian violence will follow. They also fear the new toys (read tanks, weapons, trained troops) that the U.S. has left with the current regime.
In the end, if the Iraqis did not want us to leave, then why did 80% of them (according to polls) want us to go? The could have told us they wanted us to stay…
Instead, Al Maliki was trying to extort Obama in order to allow us to keep troops in a country we didn’t want to keep troops in (not to mention a country that didn’t want us there either). I think the author needs to get a clue.
Some of his points are probably valid, but the overall conclusion is suspect and not the only one.
They asked us to leave. We left. Why shouldn’t Obama welcome the troops home and celebrate the end of our military involvement there? He did a good job getting safely everyone out in time for Christmas.
I can understand why they’d be bitter about the initial invasion and occupation though– because it was not necessary and very poorly planned.