Posts tagged Iraq

October Surprise: Romney Endorses Obama!

83
7 months ago
by dcpetterson in

On Mon­day evening, we wit­nessed the third and final debate between Pres­i­dent Obama and for­mer Gov­er­nor Rom­ney. Per­haps the most strik­ing thing about it was how often the Repub­li­can can­di­date sup­ported the poli­cies of the Demo­c­ra­tic pres­i­dent. One might think there was lit­tle, if any, day­light between them, almost as if Rom­ney would, in an emer­gency, have the President’s back.

Let’s look at a few high­lights of that debate, and see where the dif­fer­ences lie in a few impor­tant issues. Lest I be accused of mak­ing things up, be aware that I’m tak­ing these excerpts from the full tran­script of the debate as pro­vided by FOX News. (more…)

War is Political Hell

29
1 year ago
by dcpetterson in

Today marks a year since the death of Osama bin Laden, the patron and leader behind the attacks of Sep­tem­ber 11, 2001. At the risk of politi­ciz­ing those events, let’s look into how those events have been, well, politicized.

From the begin­ning, the Bush Admin­is­tra­tion in par­tic­u­lar, and the Repub­li­can Party in gen­eral, have used the al Qaeda attacks for polit­i­cal advan­tage. On May 1, 2003, Pres­i­dent Bush took a vic­tory lap, in an immense staged event on an air­craft car­rier, pro­claim­ing that “Major com­bat oper­a­tions in Iraq have ended.” Of course, they hadn’t ended, and things went so badly so quickly that in 2007 the Bush Admin­is­tra­tion had to engage in a mas­sive “surge” to make up for the dis­as­ter of the Iraq war. It was not until August 31, 2010, that a dif­fer­ent pres­i­dent, Barack Obama, could hon­estly declare an end to com­bat oper­a­tions in Iraq.

There is a pat­tern here, not only of Repub­li­cans politi­ciz­ing national secu­rity issues, but of Pres­i­dent Obama clean­ing up for­eign pol­icy messes left by Pres­i­dent Bush. The response of the Repub­li­can Party has been to fur­ther politi­cize these events, and attempt to min­i­mize the suc­cesses that Obama had but that Bush couldn’t achieve. (more…)

Open Mic October 28

10
1 year ago
by Logarchism.com in

Real estate under­wa­ter in Bangkok

There are ter­ri­ble floods in Bangkok. The United Nations voted to end the mil­i­tary cam­paign in Libya. A Marine vet­eran of the Iraq war was wounded in the Occupy Oak­land protest. The deficit super­com­mit­tee now has com­pet­ing (hos­tile?) pro­pos­als. Rick Perry, real­iz­ing his lim­i­ta­tions, may skip some debates. It turns out that the basic chem­i­cals for life are made inside stars. The Copi­ale Cipher has been cracked, and an eigh­teenth cen­tury secret soci­ety had its secrets revealed.

Don’t see an arti­cle on a par­tic­u­lar topic, but want to talk about it some­where? This is Open Mic. Talk about what­ever you want, but stay respectful.

We cre­ate a new Open Mic every week to give a clean slate, but feel free to add to this topic at any time.

Breaking News: War in Iraq is over!

96
1 year ago
by dcpetterson in

In a speech from the White House brief­ing room, Pres­i­dent Obama has announced that America’s involve­ment in the war in Iraq is over.

All Amer­i­can troops will be with­drawn by the end of the year.

America’s second-​​longest war — the longest being the con­flict in Afghanistan — has been completed.

G. W. Bush announced “Mis­sion Accom­plished,” while swag­ger­ing in a huge cod­piece on the deck of the USS Abra­ham Lin­coln on May 1, 2003. In that famous speech, he pro­claimed an end to major US com­bat oper­a­tions in Iraq. Thou­sands more Amer­i­can troops would die over the remain­ing five and a half years of Bush’s pres­i­dency. It is finally true that Amer­i­can com­bat oper­a­tions there — all of them, not just “major” ones — have ended.

After nearly nine years, 4,400 Amer­i­can deaths, tens of thou­sands of Amer­i­can sol­diers wounded, our troops are finally com­ing home.

American troops returning home
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