During his statement on Iraq Thursday, President Obama took one of his 2012 bragging points off the table. He hopes no one notices.
During the 2008 election, Obama promised to withdraw all US troops from Iraq. By 2012, that had been done (and in 2014, terrorist group ISIS is taking over a huge swath of Iraq, challenging to overthrow the democratically elected government that US troops fought and died to give a chance of succeeding).
During the last presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Obama in 2012, the subject turned to Iraq. Romney brought up the fact that he supported leaving a residual American force in Iraq, under a status of forces agreement with the Iraqi government. Romney said that Obama had previously supported having such an agreement with Iraq.
But Obama said flatly that he did not support establishing a status of forces agreement with Iraq. Here is that exchange between Romney and Obama.
The Washington Post (!) noticed that Obama is now re-writing history.
“With regards to Iraq, you and I agreed, I believe, that there should be a status of forces agreement,” Romney told Obama as the two convened on the Lynn University campus in Boca Raton, Fla., that October evening. “That’s not true,” Obama interjected. “Oh, you didn’t want a status of forces agreement?” Romney asked as an argument ensued. “No,” Obama said. “What I would not have done is left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down. That certainly would not help us in the Middle East.”
On Thursday, Obama addressed reporters in the White House Briefing Room about Iraq’s latest crisis. “Do you wish you had left a residual force in Iraq? Any regrets about that decision in 2011?” a reporter asked. “Well, keep in mind that wasn’t a decision made by me,” Obama said. “That was a decision made by the Iraqi government.”
This is what immature people of low character do when confronted with facts.
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