Yeah sure, he was warned not to pull out early just to perform a political stunt and he did it anyhow
Warned by whom knowing that Iraq was not going to back down on the immunity issue for our brave men and women in uniform?
You have not cited one person who advised Obama to keep troops in Iraq without having the immunity they deserve.
He was not warned to any degree that the situation was so bad he had to relent on the immunity issue. You are continuing to make a false statement that even Eagle recognizes as such. So cut the left winger crap.
Are you denying that Panetta said this:
NF 10908529
“I can say very clearly that any kind of U.S. presence demands that we protect and provide the appropriate immunity for our soldiers,” Panetta said in October 2011.
Are you claiming Panetta has reversed that statement anywhere anytime in any way?
You are either a liar and propagandist or, ignorant and delusional.
Key general: Iraq pullout plan a ‘disaster’
President Obama’s decision to pull all U.S. forces out of
Iraq by Dec. 31 is an “absolute disaster” that puts the burgeoning Arab democracy at risk of an Iranian “strangling,” said an architect of the 2007 troop surge that turned around a losing war.
Retired Army
Gen. John M. Keane was at the forefront of persuading President
George W. Bush to scuttle a static counterinsurgency strategy and replace it with 30,000 reinforcements and a more activist, street-by-street counterterrorism tactic.
Today, even with that strategy producing a huge drop in daily attacks,
Gen. Keane bluntly told The Washington Times that the United States again is losing.
“I think it’s an absolute disaster,” said
Gen. Keane, who advised Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was top
Iraq commander. “We won the war in
Iraq, and we’re now losing the peace.”
.....
Retired Army
Brig. Gen. Mark T. Kimmitt, a former deputy operations chief in Baghdad and a policymaker at the Pentagon, said the effectiveness of
Iraq’s counterinsurgency operations against Shiite extremists and al Qaeda in
Iraq may drop as much as 50 percent.
The Pentagon’s progress report on
Iraq in June 2010 said its counterterrorism service was “highly trained and effective” but lacked the ability on its own to go after an entire terrorist network as opposed to a single individual.
“At the operational level, it’s going to make a significant change because for years the Iraqi security forces have depended on us for counterterrorism support, for counterintelligence support, for logistical support,”
Gen. Kimmittsaid.
“We are now pulling all that out, and they will have to go it alone. By their own admission they are not ready to do it. They had not planned to do it by 2012. Their plans went all the way out to 2020 before they thought they were going to be ready to do this independently.”
Iraq’s top military officer, Lt. Gen. Babaker Zebari, said last summer that the security forces would not be fully capable for another eight years.
....
Leading Republicans shared
Gen. Keane’s criticism of the withdrawal.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona called the move “a serious mistake.”
“I’m very, very concerned about increased Iranian influence in
Iraq,” Mr. McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told ABC’s “This Week.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said Mr. Obama made a dangerous decision that ignored U.S. military recommendations to keep some troops in
Iraq next year.
.....
The top brass had wanted to keep a force of quick-reaction commandos, trainers and aviators in
Iraq past the 2011 deadline set in 2008 by
Mr. Bush in what is called a status-of-forces agreement. Washington always viewed the date as flexible if Baghdad requested a longer presence.
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed at his confirmation hearing to a senator’s statement that it would be wise to keep troops in
Iraq next year.
“I don’t know the number, Senator, but it would be a number where we could provide the capability that they would request, that we would be able to protect ourselves, and it would have to meet both of our nations’ mutual interests,” he said.
Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the Army chief of staff who commanded U.S. forces in
Iraq, also told senators that
Iraq needed a continued U.S. aviation presence to protect its airspace. But he later told reporters that Iraqi security was as good as it had ever been.
....
“Strategically, it’s obvious. This is a big win for Tehran,”
Gen. Kimmitt said.
“I believe there is a lot of concern [in Gulf Arab states]. We have said one of reasons for keeping American forces in
Iraq was to continue a very strong signal to
Iran to draw a line between Persian
Iran and the rest of the region.
“The Iraqis themselves have to make a decision whether they want to lean toward the West or lean toward the East.
Iran has a very aggressive program inside
Iraq to spread their influence.”
He said
Iran, which now aids Syria, and the terrorist groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, would love to have a pathway through
Iraq to increase its influence among those groups.
“Removing U.S. troops only enables that,”
Gen. Kimmitt said.
Gen. Keane added, “We’re losing the peace because the No. 1 strategic enemy we have in the region is
Iran. And as a result of us pulling away from
Iraq, we’re losing our influence in
Iraq. And the Iranians are gaining influence in
Iraq. And that strategically should be unacceptable to us.”
....
So, still think nobody was telling Oblahblah that removing all the troops at this time was going to be a disaster?