Quote:I'm not trying to defend Obama's foreign policy. For one, I disagree with most of it, and two, I've already had that argument with you. I find it interesting that you posted a story basically confirming that Obama had no ability to extend or renegotiate the SOFA without support from the US and Iraq (he had support from neither), and somehow are arguing that it confirms that Obama did nothing. Of course he did nothing. The article makes it clear that the parties that had to agree for him to do something made [BAD WORD REMOVED]ed efforts at best. I mean, others within Washington--not President Obama--wanted US soldiers to be immune to Iraqi laws and prosecution. Don't you see why Iraq might have had a problem with that?

 

I don't blame Obama in the least for wanting us out of Iraq. We should never have been there in the first place, and were it not for some careful engineering on the part of the executive branch from 2001-2003, we never would have been.

 

 

Quote:So you're saying that it's ok for a President to lie about the motivations for going to war?

 

"There you go again,"

 

You willfully ignore the direct and rather detailed political analysis of Barrack Obama's strategy to use the negotiations as the cover for a pull out, just like he used the authorization for use of force as cover for doing nothing in Syria.  I have noticed a distinct pattern of your just omitting the parts of my posts that you just wish would go away.  

 

The basic premise of your argument is asinine.  "Barrack Obama couldn't do x y or z because he would need the support of a b and c."  The funny thing is that liberal politicians run for office to amass omnipotence and yet when things go sour somehow convince the masses that they are but helpless pawns.  Barrack Obama is the leader of the free world.  In efforts such as war and the defense of this nation it is his RESPONSIBILITY to build consensus and coalitions that serve the interest of the globe, but chiefly that of American citizens.  The idea that he didn't have the ability or that his hands were tied is flatly ridiculous.  

 

When Barrack Obama wants something, he usually finds a way to make it happen.  he brought healthcare back from the political scrap heap when congressional members of his own party were being shouted down in town hall meetings.  He got a republican house to pass an increase to the top marginal rate. Any attempt to curtail or limit his legislative achievements by the current congress are slapped down with a threat of a government shutdown.  Show me one instance where he has talked as passionately about keeping troops in Iraq or outright defeating ISIS as he has about bringing in Refugees?  

 

I think that I and other members of the board have indulged your fantasy about Halliburton Stock and oil enough.  If you want to continue with the misguided notion that the Iraq war was based on a lie shared by every major intelligence community you are going to have to provide us with evidence that Sadaam Hussein's execution was faked and that the bush administration promised him billions of dollars in stock options, oil futures, and a faked execution for him being complicit.  Until such time i would please ask you to leave the "Bush lied" t-shirts at home.

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