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Archive for the ‘Iraq’ Category

Santorum Instructs Students On Same-Sex Marriage and Health …

jonathanturley.org1/5/12

When a student asked Santorum asked about health care, the student cited a 2009 Harvard study and noted that he did not “think God appreciates the fact that we have 50 to 100000 uninsured Americans dying due to a lack of healthcare every year.” He should know better to cite an academic study to Santorum …. Many have simply packed up and left the state (which helps keep the unemployment rate statewide low). Those who stay in rural Iowa are often the elderly …

American Power: Santorum Sharpens Aim at Romney

americanpowerblog.blogspot.com1/6/12

"A lot of blue collar workers have been left behind in America," Mr. Santorum said Thursday in Manchester. Later, at a campaign event in Tilton, he said his family and his friends' families had worked in factories. To a man who …

What disturbs me most about this video is that the students from New England College are unable to follow the simple logic behind Santorum’s questions.

Santorum knows that his anti-g**-marriage stance will cost him votes, but he was at least patient and trying to make our next generation think a little.

But sadly, they were unable to.

Why Is That Important?

Because if our students aren’t either encouraged, or convinced to give up on their simplistic thinking, then America will soon lag behind a great many countries.

Consider perhaps the attitude that most US students have toward Israel.

They believe that Israel is the villain and that Palestinian land has been appropriated when in fact a Palestinian people never existed

People were displaced, both Jews and Arabs, but Israel absorbed the displaced Jews whereas Arab countries never absorbed displaced Arabs.

Both displaced peoples were around the same size; about a million people.

Why do they have that attitude?

Because they were seduced by simplistic propaganda when they could have checked out the facts easily and quickly, but they didn’t and don’t.

Why?

Because their professors are rabid left-wingers, and the students are lazy and want to be spoon-fed!

Every year, campus hate groups such as the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine join a festival of lies called the “Israel Apartheid Week” whose theme is that Israel is an apartheid state, in spite of the fact that Israel has Arab members of the Knesset; that Arab Israelis can and do vote without any restrictions; that Arabs use the same toilets, buses and restaurants etc. as Jewish Israelis.

Happily, and alternative is now being presented and it’s an honest one and not simply a propaganda one.

Please check out: The Wall Of Lies

Rice: Iraq withdrawal threatens US gains – The Hill's Video

thehill.com11/6/11

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Sunday that President Obama's plan to pull all U. S..

Obama's Tragic Iraq Withdrawal – Council on Foreign Relations

www.cfr.org10/31/11

Max Boot says the end of the U.S. military mission in Iraq is not a triumph but a defeat for the United States.

So Why did the US Lose In Iraq?

It must, in all fairness be said, that Barack Obama was critical of the Iraq war from its beginning.

But when he became president in January 2009, he was handed a war that had already been won!

The surge had succeeded!

The US Had It Won!

Al-Qaeda in Iraq had been routed, driven to a humiliating defeat by an Anbar Awakening of Sunnis fighting side-by-side with the infidel Americans!

And perhaps even more remarkably, the Shiite militias had been taken down, with U.S. backing, by the forces of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki!

The Sadr militias from Basra to Sadr City had been crushed!

So Obama Inherited A Very Simple Task

He simply needed to negotiate a new (SOFA) Status-of-forces agreement in order to reinforce the gains and to create a strategic partnership with the Arab world’s only democracy.

But he blew it, and negotiations, such as they were, finally collapsed in October 2011.

There is no longer an agreement, and no partnership, and as of Dec. 31, and the U.S. military presence in Iraq will to all intents and purposes be ended.

So How Did The Obama Administration Blow It?

The deadline didn’t suddenly sneak up on Obama because he had three years to prepare for it, and everyone involved, both Iraqi and American, knew that the 2008 SOFA which called for full U.S. withdrawal was meant to be renegotiated.

And all the major parties but one, the Sadr faction, had an interest in maintaining a residual stabilizing U.S. force, similar to the postwar deployments in Japan, Germany and Korea.

Joe Biden Was Handed The Negotiating Job

During the last three years, there were two abject and serious failures.

The First Major Failure Was Caused By

The administration’s inability, at the height of American post-surge power, to broker a centrist nationalist coalition governed by the major blocs.

Between

The predominantly Shiite (Maliki’s).

The predominantly Sunni (Ayad Allawi’s).

And the Kurds who won a large majority (69 percent) of the seats in the 2010 election.

Vice President Biden was given this relatively simple job, but even this was way beyond his limited capabilities.

(Why did Obama choose Biden as his vice president?).

The Iraqi government ended up effectively being run by a narrow sectarian coalition wherein the balance of power is held by a relatively small (12%) Iranian-client Sadr faction.

The Second Failure Was

Obama’s Status-Of-Forces Agreement!

U.S. commanders recommended approximately 20,000 troops, which would have been considerably fewer than our 28,500 in Korea, 40,000 in Japan and 54,000 in Germany but our president rejected those proposals, and chose instead a level of 3,000 to 5,000 troops.

The President’s Decision Was Therefore Doomed To Failure!

Because a deployment so incredibly small will effectively have to expend ALL its energies simply protecting itself.

The Lebanese Deployment

Similar to our tragic and somewhat aimless 1982 Lebanon deployment, we’ll now be left with.

No capability to train the Iraqis.

No capability to build their U.S. equipped air force.

And no capability to mediate ethnic disputes.

Did Obama Really Want A Successful Outcome?

Almost certainly, "No", he didn’t!

Because Obama’s proposal was an unmistakable signal of unseriousness, and it quickly became clear that he just wanted out.

Some Proof Of What I’m Writing?

Massoud Barzani, who has been the leader of the Kurds for two decades and was the staunchest of U.S. allies, just visited Tehran to bend a knee to both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Obama’s Lame Excuse

Our friends should not have been left out in the cold to seek Iranian protection.

Three years and a won war gave Obama the opportunity to establish a lasting strategic alliance with the Arab world’s second most important power.

Obama’s excuse is the Iraqi refusal to grant legal immunity to U.S. forces, but the Bush administration encountered the same problem and overcame it.

Obama obviously had little desire to so however, and is now attempting to portray the withdrawal as a success.

So Why Didn’t Obama Want To Win?

Obama opposed the war which is understandable.

But when he became commander in chief, the terrible price had already been paid in blood and treasure, so surely his obligation was to make something of that sacrifice, to secure the strategic gains that sacrifice had already achieved?!

The Bottom Line

Years from now, we will most likely still be asking, not,

"How did the US lose the war in Iraq?".

But, "Why did the Obama Administration do it?".