Obama: “Iraq was all about me”
The Narcissist in Chief President uses his weekly address to comment on the official end of combat operations in Iraq:
No mention of the victories won by our forces there, either during the initial liberation or in the hard-fought guerrilla war that culminated in the 2007-08 “surge.” No admission that he, himself, was wrong when in 2007 he described Iraq as a total failure even while the results of the surge were becoming manifest. And certainly no thanks to the man who provided the needed political will to see the surge take place at all: George W. Bush.
Instead we get yet another focus on Obama by Obama, as he takes credit for ending a war that was largely over by the time he took office, and a paean to our forces which mostly treats them as victims because it focuses on their sacrifices and the hurts they’ve suffered, but makes no mention of victories won and the good they’ve done. Promising educational benefits and especially an improved Veteran’s Administration is a good thing (Lord knows, VA services are often scandalous), but would it have killed him to admit their overthrow of Saddam Hussein put an end to a living Hell? Or that crushing Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2007-08 made Iraq and indeed the world a better place?
Or simply that they won?
Eh, who am I kidding? “Victory” is a dead word in the Leftist lexicon, unless it’s over conservatives. Instead, “victim” is their touchstone.
LINKS: More from Ed Morrissey, who, like me, worries that Obama may pull the rest of our forces out way too soon; Iraq will need an American shield to protect it from its ravenous neighbors for many years to come, while it develops its own forces and, just as important, the habits of democracy.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)