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Across the border, in Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition. Tonight, I again call on Congress to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters. In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorises its people; a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost.
He is asking for Congressional approval here. Makes me wonder if he sought Congressional approval with the 150 airstrikes and was rejected - and did it anyway...
Assad... I am not sure what side of the fence on which we should be... if at all.
Presidents have authority to order military operations without Congress. Look at the invasion of Panama for example (with Bush Sr), also done while Congress was on recess. He did not violate the law in doing it, although some argue it was not an emergency and could have waited. Anyway, presidents need authorization to conduct prolonged military as is the case here.
And his continued use of ISIL instead of ISIS means we could be looking at invading more then just Iraq and Syria.
A perpetual war in the Middle East folks.
And it makes me sick. We are just giving them what they want. ISIS/ISIL is no different than Bin Laden was. They have the same handbook and desire.
As Bin Laden said in 2004:
"The US is easy to provoke and bait its administration. We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.
All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note
other than SOME BENEFITS FOR THEIR PRIVATE CORPORATIONS"
If we do not understand this basic principle of why they want us there, we will NEVER leave - until we (the American people) just can't afford it anymore. I actually think that time has come.
We are not even taking care of our vets who came back from the last two wars. And it will be just like Vietnam. Send a few here, a few there, and before we know it, we are in another full fledged war. Next will come the draft, mark my words, because we can't possibly expect our present volunteer force to do 4 - 5 and beyond tours of duty. Obama is asking Congress for more money. Is there more money in there to help our veterans???
I don't even blame Bush or Obama. I blame the American people.
America, WAKE UP!
Last edited by pollyrobin; 09-11-2014 at 11:23 AM..
Since then, we have conducted more than 150 successful air strikes in Iraq. These strikes have protected American personnel and facilities, killed ISIL fighters, destroyed weapons, and given space for Iraqi and Kurdish forces to reclaim key territory. These strikes have helped save the lives of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
I haven't been following the news as much lately - was anyone aware of this?
The U.S. has already launched approximately 150 airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, a mission undertaken at the invitation of the Iraqi government and without formal authorization from Congress.
What is he doing? He starts military action on his own. Has Congress said anything? I would think even the lefties are upset at this one.
Rules are for the little people.
Thank you.
You didn't know about the airstrikes?
Yes, he had the authority, and Congress admitted as much.
This seems to be all about Obama for you, but it is really about US as whole.
He has reduced the standing and respect of our country in the world. We are no longer the most respected or powerful nation in the world anymore...further, we're quickly becoming a society of dimwits, criminals, and entitlement-minded, with the focus on Hollywood and rappers. The world laughs at him, and us.
What the h*ll hit us????
the "O"-bomb...that's what.
Where's my country?????????????
Dandiday
You are blaming ALL that on Obama? If you think he has that much power, you must think he is a god Our academic standing in the world has been deteriorating even before no child left behind. Rap music got its foothold in the 1980's!
But you are right, we dimwits, allow this perpetual war syndrome to happen over, and over, and over again. We might be running out of allies for it. You know, their own people have something to say about it too.
We created this ISIS monster when we thought that arming/training them would unseat Assad.
We were the ones that got the weapons from Libya through Turkey and into Syria into their hands.
We were the ones that trained them in 2012 to overthrow Assad.
We, along with other ME countries, bankrolled them for years to go fight our proxy wars.
We created this ISIS monster when we thought that arming/training them would unseat Assad.
We were the ones that got the weapons from Libya through Turkey and into Syria into their hands.
We were the ones that trained them in 2012 to overthrow Assad.
We, along with other ME countries, bankrolled them for years to go fight our proxy wars.
Oh yes I do blame American military and intelligence communities.
Fighting these proxy wars has turned out worse then actually putting boots on the ground.
All these boogiemen were once our "allies" that we armed, trained and handed suitcases full of money to.
And then each of them turned on us.
But we won't learn though. We're already looking for the next set of rebel fighters to arm and buy off.
I think Bush did the right thing giving the pull-out order, and it was confirmed later when Iraq declared US military would no longer have immunity in Iraq after that date. We can't just leave tens of thousands of Americans in a country open endedly just in case the country need help policing their country. Why is it a bad idea? Because such country would not invest in their own security, because they can count on American tax payers picking up the tab.
President Bush never gave a "pull out order" ..... he did negotiate a successful Status of Forces Order in 2008 that gave Obama 3 years to make sure that Iraq would be secure. Obama blew it, but he did that deliberately. Team Obama wanted the "pull out", so they made sure it happened .... even while denying they intended to "pull out" completely.
The generals on the ground had requested that the number of troops remaining in Iraq at the end of the year reach about 27,000. But, there was major pushback about "the cost and the political optics" of that decision that the number was then reduced to 10,000.
Commanders said they could possibly make that work "in extremis," in other words, meaning they would be pushing it to make that number work security-wise and manpower-wise.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton advocated keeping 10,000 troops in place "but she has lost the battle."
I think the Generals (and many experts on Iraq) were totally shocked that Team Obama was willing to toss Iraq back to the threats of extremism and to throw away the gains due to "political optics" - but that's exactly what happened. Obama left zero troops in Iraq at the end of the Status of Forces agreement (I guess this proves Team Bush was better at Negotiation than Team Obama), except for a security force (contractors) and a small Marine force for the Embassies. We know how well that all worked out. The worst of the entire thing is that we lost intelligence capability with no people on the ground.
So ..... the White House "denied" Troop Withdrawal on Sept 6, 2011 and then made the Big Announcement of Troop Withdrawal on October 21, 2011.
Q Denis, nine years, complete withdrawal. In the White House’s assessment, is this a victory for the United States?
MR. McDONOUGH: So when the President laid out a vision for the future of Iraq in February 2009 down at Camp LeJeune -- many of you were there -- he said what we’re looking for is an Iraq that’s secure, stable and self-reliant, and that’s exactly what we got here. So there’s no question this is a success.
Q Specifically, long discussions over the issue of immunity. Had that issue been resolved? Would the President have preferred to have had trainers remain -- U.S. trainers, U.S. troops remain there as trainers?
MR. McDONOUGH: What the President preferred was for the best relationship for the United States and Iraq going forward. That’s exactly what we have now as a result of the painstaking work of, importantly, our commanding general there, Lloyd Austin, our ambassador Jim Jeffrey.
But the bottom line is, the decision that you heard the President talk about today is reflective of his view and the Prime Minister’s view of the kind of relationship that we want to have going forward. That relationship is a normal relationship that’s based on a diplomatic lead, a civilian presence in the lead, but also will have important security components, as our relationships diplomatically all around the world have, from Jordan to Egypt to Colombia to other countries that have similar kinds of security components. So we feel like we got exactly what we needed to protect our interests, and the Iraqis feel the same way.
MR. McDONOUGH: The main purpose of the effort that we undertook, Matt, over the course of not only the last several months -- and intensively, Tony and I -- but also over the last several years, was the establishment of a normal relationship with a secure, stable and self-reliant Iraq that allows them in a region of considerable unrest at the moment to chart the kind of secure future that they want. That was the goal -- not some kind of a arrangement around immunities.
And in getting this kind of goal, this kind of -- fulfilling this goal of a secure relationship -- a secure, stable, self-reliant Iraq -- we got exactly what we needed.
Q And you said the Iraq mission was ending as a success. Is that the same as mission accomplished?
MR. McDONOUGH: I’ll let you check your thesaurus. I’m sorry about that.
Obama got exactly what he wanted - President Bush didn't give a "pull out" order, Obama essentially gave that "pull-out" order the day he was elected President of the USA.
And then there was Obama's statement during the 2012 Debates -- how is he going to run from that one? On page 2 of this article, Joe Biden even admits that they manipulated the situation to make it impossible for any SOFA.
Now he (and his followers) want to "change" the narrative and "Blame Bush" because Iraq (as predicted) is over-run by ISIL. That dad-gum Video Tape strikes again - Obama got exactly what he wanted AND they called Iraq an Obama Success.
Last edited by Kibby; 09-11-2014 at 12:25 PM..
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, mark my words, because we can't possibly expect our present volunteer force to do 4 - 5 and beyond tours of duty. Obama is asking Congress for more money. Is there more money in there to help our veterans???
Our academic standing in the world has been deteriorating even before no child left behind. Rap music got its foothold in the 1980's! 