Iceweasel
Diamond Member
History cannot be changed. Remain as ignorant as you wish.and that changes what, exactly?It wasn't that simple.it was the deal he signed. if he wanted something else he shouldnt have waited until his back was against the wall to negotiate itI posted the answer to that several days ago. The fact that obama ran on getting out of Iraq left no wiggle room in the negotiations. It was not the deal W wanted.right. which president signed an agreement requiring us to leave? simple question, only one answerBush wanted us to work out a new status of forces agreement and leave a residual force of 50,000 behind, but Big-ears wanted to be able to say he ended the war. So we bailed completely. This is all Obama's fault, not Bush
Bush’s finest moment on Iraq: SOFA, not the surge
Conservatives now like to claim the SOFA as a “Bush-negotiated” success. But Bush entered the SOFA negotiations looking for something entirely different than what emerged at the end. The U.S. went into the SOFA talks intent on obtaining legitimacy for a long-term military presence in Iraq once the Security Council mandate ended. When negotiations began, it was widely assumed that Bush would extract from the Iraqis an agreement which made the removal of U.S. troops entirely contingent upon American assessments of conditions on the ground. There were widespread discussions of permanent U.S. bases and a Korea-style presence for generations, an assumption that the U.S. would retain a free hand in its operations, and an absolute rejection of an Obama-style timeline for withdrawal.
But Iraqi leaders, to most everyone’s surprise, took a hard line in the negotiations. Their tough line was encouraged by Iran, no doubt, as stressed by many frustrated American commentators. But it also reflected Iraqi domestic considerations, including several rounds of upcoming elections and an intensely strong popular Iraqi hostility to the U.S. occupation under any name. The Iraqis were also helped by the calender. As negotiations dragged on, the December 31 deadline loomed large, threatening to leave the U.S. troops without any legal mandate to remain in the country and forcing the hand of American negotiators. Finally, the Iraqi leaders clearly kept a careful eye on the American Presidential elections and used Obama’s stance to strengthen their own hand in negotiations.
nothing except for more evidence that iraq wanted us gone