The Obama Debacle!

The Iraq debacle has shown that our emperor has no clothes. For the past six years, the media has covered up for the most incompetent administration since the beginning of the 20th century, but as Iraq spirals out of control, it can no longer be denied that this is Obama’s failure. While many on the left have stated that this has proven the failure of Bush’s invasion of Iraq, all it showed is the failure of Obama’s policies.

The facts are straight forward and simple. Bush left Obama a military victory in Iraq and a relatively tranquil Iraq. President Obama disagreed with the original decision. He had a choice. The first choice was work out a deal with Iraq’s leaders and maintain a stable Iraq with a garrison of American troops. The second choice was to leave Iraq to the Iraqis and accept the consequence of what will happen. Obama did the second as he wanted to fulfill the only campaign promise he probably kept; leave Iraq and allow the events to play out. What has happened in Iraq and much of the Middle East, including the rise of Islamic terrorism and Iran, which is about to be a major regional nuclear power, is the direct responsibility of Obama and his foreign policy team, which includes the soon to be coronated Queen, Hillary Clinton.

Since the last election, we have been shown what will be the result of America's retreat from the world. Chaos and even more violence is the result. According to the UN, there are more refugees since the end of World War II; some 50 million are now homeless as result of wars. In Central Europe, the fear of Russia has returned, and throughout the Pacific, a resurgent China seeks to be the dominant power in the Pacific. President Obama has no policy to deal with the reality of the real world and has no real understanding about what America’s role should be.

On the two biggest events in his administration, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, George Bush asked Congress for support and put them on the record. From the late 1990’s through 2003, there was a bipartisan consensus for the need for a regime change in Iraq, and Congress voted to give Bush the right to use force. Among those voting for the war included Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and all three changed their mind, much due to political consideration as principles. (Robert Gates mention in his recent book that Hillary Clinton admitted as much to him when she opposed the surge because of politics.) Nor did it help that Obama never went to Congress on key military interventions, and often his “my way or the highway” style of governing on domestic affairs hurt Republican trust in Obama’s leadership.

The final aspect of this debate is where do we go from here? What do we need to do to defend our national interest and what is our national interest? The time has come for that debate since many Republicans and Democrats may disagree with each other as much as they do with their opponents. There is no bipartisanship in foreign affairs or agreement on what our national interest is. That is Obama’s fault.