According to barackobama.com, the end to the Iraq war is 'a promise kept'. It's true that the troops are withdrawing on President Obama's watch. But let's not forget who initiated the withdrawal. (Hint: It's not us.)
Iraq’s prime minister said Saturday that U.S. troops are leaving Iraq after nearly nine years of war because Baghdad rejected American demands that any U.S. military forces to stay would have to be shielded from prosecution or lawsuits.
The comments by Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, made clear that it was Iraq who refused to let the U.S. military remain under the Americans’ terms.
A day earlier, President Obama hailed the troops’ withdrawal as the result of his commitment — promised shortly after taking office in 2009 — to end the war that he once described as “dumb.”
“When the Americans asked for immunity, the Iraqi side answered that it was not possible,” al-Maliki told reporters in Baghdad. “The discussions over the number of trainers and the place of training stopped. Now that the issue of immunity was decided and that no immunity to be given, the withdrawal has started.”
President Obama promised to bring American troops home the first time around. It didn't happen. Now that we are being told to get out, his re-election campaign is spinning it to look like an active decision.
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