Fox News is using the anniversary of Sept. 11 to once again peddle nonsense about "a prophetic warning from then-President George W. Bush" about the dangers of leaving Iraq too soon. The implication of course is that we would not be facing these challenges in the Middle East if Bush's policies had been maintained.
For the record, the comments above came in 2007, four years after the supposedly clairvoyant Bush stood in front of a Mission Accomplished banner and proclaimed "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." Furthermore, Bush makes it quite clear that he is warning against what would happen if US forces started leaving immediately, right then, in July of 2007. He did not say a damn thing about what might happen if they were withdrawn by December 2011, which was still more than four years in the future.
More to the point, in December 2008 Bush negotiated and signed an agreement with the Iraqi leadership explicitly committing the United States to pull all troops out of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011. The timetable was his; the commitment was his. And just so there's no question about it, let me quote directly from Article 24, Page 15, of the so-called Status of Forces Agreement that Bush signed with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki:
2. All United States combat forces shall withdraw from Iraqi cities, villages, and localities no later than the time at which Iraqi Security Forces assume full responsibility for security in an Iraqi province, provided that such withdrawal is completed no later than June 30, 2009."
Bush signed the document because he realized that it was the best that he was going to get. The Iraqi people wanted us gone, and under those circumstances few if any Iraqi politicians were willing to publicly support an open-ended American military presence. They knew if they did so, they would be signing their own political death warrant and perhaps their more literal death warrant as well. The environment was illustrated perfectly when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at Bush during the press conference announcing the agreement, shouting "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog."
Given that poisoned atmosphere, it's ludicrous to pretend that Barack Obama could have swept in, renegotiated the deal and arranged for U.S. combat troops to remain. Critics are correct that Obama later took credit for the withdrawal, gliding over the fact that the deadlines had been committed to by his predecessor. For that, you can accurately accuse him of being a politician.
It is also true that this is a rehash of history, but it is recent and quite relevant history. A lot depends on how accurately that history is recalled, which is why Fox is attempting to mislead its viewers once again and rearrange and compress actual events. It is especially important with the likes of Dick Cheney being called in to advise GOP think tanks and House Republicans on strategy, and with John McCain strutting about trying to refight old battles. We've seen their strategy, we watched it being carried out, and we witnessed the thousands of needless deaths that it caused. We can't sit back in silence and allow history to be rewritten and distorted so that such men can once again reclaim positions of influence and authority.
Been there done that, and remember it all too well.
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