Critics of former President George W. Bush (and there are still many, even though he’s been out of office for half a decade now) often say that Bush’s decision to go into Iraq was the worst foreign policy blunder in American history. For the record, I don’t share that view, but I do believe that reasonable minds can come to different conclusions as to whether the U.S. should have gone in and toppled Saddam, or not.
It is my contention that once the decision was made to go in, and so much blood and treasure was expended, and a relative peace was secured, President Obama made a terrible blunder, and, in effect, seized defeat from the jaws of victory by precipitously pulling ALL U.S. troops from Iraq. Iraq wasn’t ready to maintain security on its own, and a number of us warned that all hell would break loose, and many innocent people would die.
And that is exactly what is happening now. Iraq is on the verge of a civil war (between Sunni and Shia), which is likely to spread throughout the region. Car and truck bombs killing dozens and dozens of innocent men, women, and children are once again a common occurrence. And rather than have a stable, pro-American ally in the Middle East, we have a festering boil which, when it ruptures, will spill over onto the United States and our allies.
As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I traveled to Iraq on three separate occasions – once early in the war, once shortly before the surge, and finally about six months before President Obama announced his decision to pull all U.S. troops out. Having met with our top military officials, troops on the ground, state department and embassy officials, our coalition allies in Iraq, and many Iraqi’s themselves, I can tell you unequivocally that everyone understood and expected a U.S. advisory force of 10,000 or so American troops to remain in Iraq to keep the peace and secure our gains there.
President Obama’s half-hearted attempt to reach an agreement with Iraqi officials on the details of our troops remaining, and his subsequent shocking decision to pull all troops out, surprised everyone. And it has been a disaster. (Although with the turmoil in Libya, Syria, and Egypt the ongoing violence in Iraq get’s very little attention in the press anymore.)
Now to be fair, Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki shares the blame with President Obama for botching the negotiations to maintain a certain level of U.S troops in Iraq after the war. And considering the daily carnage in Iraq after U.S. troops were ungratefully shown the door, clearly before Iraqi troops were ready to keep the peace, he must be kicking himself for his stupidity. But al-Maliki is not the leader of the free world, President Obama is. And we expect more from our presidents.
I would submit that perhaps the greatest foreign policy blunder in recent American history was President Obama’s decision to put Iraq in the rear view mirror, and forget about the sacrifices made by so many American heroes at such a high cost.
