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No, he did not do a great job keeping them under control. He created a powderkeg situation by arming the Sunni tribes and employing them as his national army, violently suppressing and torturing the Shi'ites, suppressing and displacing and genociding the Kurds. The situation was bound to explode as soon as Saddam kicked the bucket or was deposed, regardless of U.S. involvement. In fact, we kept the lid on it by occupying them for 8 years.
I say, it's good Saddam is gone. Saddam was a horrible, odious dictator responsible for millions of deaths. Even ISIS, so far, doesn't come close to the depredations Saddam visited upon his country, upon Iran, and funding and arming terrorists all around the region.
Anyway, this thread is about how well Obama has handled his responsibilities. He assumed office seven years ago, at the end of 2008. Isn't that enough time to say he owns the problems of the country, already? The liberals and Obama-bots keep harkening back to George W. Bush and his "daddy complex" and all that BS, and can't own up to the fact that Obama is now in charge and has f**ked things up royally here, in the Middle East, and elsewhere.
Had Obama not pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq prematurely--yes it was a campaign promise but it was a militarily idiotic thing to do as the top brass must have told him--then ISIS would not have taken over northern Iraq and spread their poison into Syria. An attack force of 50,000 U.S. troops with heavy armor and air support would have prevented that. All that sacrifice, and all that expertise we had built up, and all those relationships with the tribal chieftains--thrown away and wasted.
The Sunni tribes that Petraeus built an alliance with were counting on the Americans to protect them from the Shi'ite government, and when the Americans suddenly pulled out, the Sunnis joined forces with ISIS for self-protection. It's a classic example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Obama screwed the Iraqis and let a vicious cat out of the bag that now we are having to go in and fight and it may get ugly before it's over.
Then there's the Iran nuclear deal -- what a ****-up that is -- it will probably lead to a nuclear arms race and possibly a war down the line. Obama begged the Iranians to talk to him, sending them letter after letter, and they refused to even answer him, and mocked him publicly, then finally allowed him to come bearing gifts. Meanwhile the Israeli leader came to D.C. and Obama refused even to meet with him. A diplomatic disaster.
But, nothing I'm saying will influence you or the other Obama-bots who infest this thread. You'll just keep repeating your talking points over and over ("Bush this, Bush that") and refuse to even consider that Obama made some major mistakes that we as a country will be paying for a long time to come.
If you read even one of my posts you'd see that I am far from being Obama's supporter. I think he's a shallow, ineffective president who's been chasing PR "victories" from day one and never thought twice before jamming a bad decision down our throats as long as it was another "first" for his presidency (first medical insurance overhaul... first Cuba deal... first Iran deal...) Although I am sort of ambivalent on Cuba. His biggest achievement was in protecting the Wall Street fraudsters. And maybe TPP.
But I do consider Bush to be far worse. He's probably one of the worst presidents since the end of WW2, even Carter didn't do as much damage.
Going back to Saddam - he was carefully grooming his sons to take over once he was dead. They were every bit as sadistic, ruthless, cunning and strong willed. So I doubt that his death would cause Iraq to fall into disarray. More likely something along the lines of Syria when Assad's father died.
He had to go so that Dubya could satisfy his Daddy complex. Among other things.
Many, myself included, predicted as early as 2003 that toppling Saddam will one day turn Iraq into a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists. Looks like we were right. The war did not get rid of terrorists, it enabled them by removing the secular dictator that did a great job keeping them under control.
Next stop, Libya.
I said the exact same thing in 2003. I said there is no way the American military is not going to create terrorism by sending its military, only 150,000 troops, into a country of 24 million people and occupy it. The only way this would have worked is if you could have used the Iraqi army to do our bidding and control its country, with the U.S. overseeing the army (i.e., paying it and working alongside it) but what did Bush/Cheney do? They fired them, en masse. Sent them home with no job, take your AK-47's and have a nice life. In a series of blunders and missteps, this decision was remarkably stupid.
If you wanted a blueprint on how to create terrorism and resentment against the United States, see The Invasion of Iraq, 2003 for instructions.
Ongoing wars, more drones dropped than GWB, mass surveillance, NDAA indefinite detention, a "kill list," assassination of American citizens without due process, corporate-friendly health "reform" that did nothing to rein in costs, intimidation of journalists, an unprecedented war on whistleblowers, fast track on TPP... if Obama were a Republican president, publications like Rolling Stone would be blasting him out of the water. His presidency has been only slightly less dreadful than GWB's.
I don't like what he's done, but he's done more to advance the Socialist agenda and enhance the power of the executive office than anyone since Roosevelt. He's completely subverted Congress and built up the modern regulatory state to a level never before seen. Finally, he's cemented the power of the Democratic Party through fraud, the admission of illegal aliens, and racial division and turmoil.
So from the standpoint of accomplishing his objectives, he's done that. He's transformed our country just like he promised.
Hey if we can give Regan false credit for Ending the cold war, and dismiss his destruction of the middle class in America, not to mention his administration role in the Crack epidemic. Then we should be able to give Obama credit for things he ACTUALLY accomplished like the finding and killing of Osama.
Too many things with that smell of a conspiracy.....
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