This inconvenient flashback is brought to you by the Washington Free Beacon:
Vice President Joe Biden predicted in 2010 that Iraq would be “one of the greatest achievements” of the Obama administration.
Appearing on CNN’s Larry King Live, Biden told King “It [Iraq] could be one of the greatest achievements of this administration.” He continued, “You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.”
Here’s the video:
Paul Waldman of the Washington Post has a rather unique take on what’s happening in Iraq:
On Iraq, let’s ignore those who got it all wrong
We have now reached the rather ironic situation in Iraq where we find ourselves allied with Iran in an effort to save the corrupt and thuggish government of Nouri al-Maliki, while the army we spent eight years training falls apart. I’m not going to pretend to have unique insight into Iraqi politics (I’d suggest reading Marc Lynch, for starters, as a way of getting up to speed on what has led to this point).
But there are few people who understand Iraq less than the Republican politicians and pundits who are being sought out for their comments on the current situation.
As you watch the debate on this issue, you should remind yourself that the most prominent voices being heard are the very ones who brought us the Iraq War in the first place, who promised that everything was simple and the only question was whether we’d be “strong” and “decisive” enough — the same thing they’re saying today.
Funny.
I thought the only person who looked worse than Joe Biden on Iraq right now was Obama.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Aleister: In a way, Biden is right. A warrior king once asked a seer to forecast the outcome of a battle. The prophet said: “I foresee a great victory”. Content, the king went out with his armies and was subsequently slaughtered in an epic defeat.
It was a great victory — for the other side.
This is probably Obama’s greatest achievement…in combing hubris, incompetence, and loathing for constitutional restrictions. Given the competition — Obamacare, border security, IRS-harassment of conservative citizen groups — it is remarkable, indeed.
I suppose you are right, when all your failures are epic, a complete failure can be your greatest achievement.
“We used to restrain Maliki all the time,” Lieutenant General Michael Barbero, the deputy commander in Iraq until January, 2011, told me. “If Maliki was getting ready to send tanks to confront the Kurds, we would tell him and his officials, ‘We will physically block you from moving if you try to do that.’ ” Barbero was angry at the White House for not pushing harder for an agreement. “You just had this policy vacuum and this apathy,” he said. “Now we have no leverage in Iraq. Without any troops there, we’re just another group of guys.” There is no longer anyone who can serve as a referee, he said, adding, “Everything that has happened there was not just predictable—we predicted it.”
Indeed, months before the election, American diplomats in Iraq sent a rare dissenting cable to Washington, complaining that the U.S., with its combination of support and indifference, was encouraging Maliki’s authoritarian tendencies. “We thought we were creating a dictator,” one person who signed the memo told me.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/380409/obamas-iraq-debacle-rich-lowry
Which sort of GUTS that asphole from WaPo, dunnit…???
All Pres. ScamWOW had to do was FINISH the SOFA negotiations, which had been all but finalized by the Bush administration.
But he had no stomach for that.
Obama made everything worse. Every. Thing.
I think this is a perfect example of something Ben Shapiro talks about on his radio show. For liberals the accomplishment is getting their agenda enacted NOT the actual results. A stable peaceful democracy was never their goal, saying they “ended” the war was. Just like how they’ll celebrate increased welfare expansion as a victory even if the result is higher poverty. Welcome to the new generation of liberal politics, gold stars for trying!
Sadly, it really is his greatest achievement.
Premature evacuation. Cut and run does not improve America’s credibility as an ally or friend. Once we choose to fight someone else’s battle, there needs to be a firm commitment. That said, we we should have declared war, rather than operating on a majority consensus, which is notoriously fickle.
Iraq was stable. The military operations should have been handled by the Americans. The policing services should have been handled by Iraqis. There should have been a slow transition as circumstances allowed.
Obama’s support for terrorist forces (aka “rebels”) and effort to destabilize Egypt, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Ukraine, etc. probably did not help the Iraqi cause.
I was in Iraq in 2008-2009, and our presence there was enough. Our enemies would no longer try to fight us head on, and the Iraqi Military and Police forces were granted the legitimacy they needed because their enemies knew we were there to support them. It was like the Iraq was the nerdy kid and we were the stronger friend that kept the bullies at bay. And we only got to that point by fighting hard with everyone that challenged us. Then we left, and now our friend is getting crushed. If we want to go back well have to fight our way to the top again, and it will be hard. But if we had just stuck around we could’ve maintained the status quo by just being there.
Let us not forget, as Hillary’s potential candidacy falls apart in the wrinkled face of an embarrassing series of friendly interviews on her book tour, that Biden is the Democrats second most likely candidate.
Just had a thought: will this leave the Democrats as they were in the ’80s and ’90s, yearning for Cuomo to ride to the rescue?
Biden is just the second place goofball to make the first place goofball look good, like he does for Obama. If Hillary craters, won’t the MSM promo efforts switch to new improved Hillary, i.e. Native American Lizzy Warren?
The powers that be are not grooming old Joe … he’s just the set up man, like Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson. 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji-cT58rgNc
(six seconds of Ed’s “Hiyooo”)
Yer lips to God’s Ears, Estragon!!
What happened to those progressive fascist posters on this site? Shouldn’t they be here telling us that this is a great victory for us and proof that Tyrant Obama the Liar is brilliant? Oh and that this is Bush’s fault.
Dear VP Plugsy the Plagerist: BHWAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..!!!
Thank You.