Mitt Romney Wants to Continue the War in Iraq - Calls Leaving an “Astonishing Failure”

Maybe Mitt Doesn't Know the Meaning of the Word "Failure"

For those who were paying attention, and maybe Mitt Romney was not, in the 2008 general election Mr. Obama pledged to end the U. S. military presence in Iraq.  He has now announced that he will do so, that by the end of 2011 U. S. military forces will be gone from that country, except for a small training contingency.

 President Obama said Friday that the last American soldier would leave Iraq by the end of the year, bringing to an end a nearly nine-year military engagement that cost the lives of 4,400 troops and more than $1 trillion, divided the American public, and came to define America’s role in the world.

So the announcement is a surprise only in the fact that a politician has actually done what he said he would do in the campaign.  Given his pasts history, one can see how Mr. Romney was confused and surprised by consistency.  So Mitt Romney, already operating as the presumptive (at least in his mind) nominee of the Republican Party criticized the move.

President Obama’s astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women,” Romney wrote. “The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government. The American people deserve to hear the recommendations that were made by our military commanders in Iraq.”

But there is this to consider.

The original status of forces agreement, negotiated in the last days of the Bush administration, called for the withdrawal of all American troops by the end of 2011.

Mr. Romney apparently does not believe the U. S. has reached its objectives in Iraq.  Let’s see, they were (1) destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, (but there were none to destroy), (2) get rid of Saddam Hussein (done that) and (3) establish a democratic government in Iraq.  Well there is a democratic government (sort of) in Iraq and they told us to leave.

So what objectives could Mr. Romney be speaking about.  Oh, the objective of the U. S. taking over the Iraqi oil supply.  True enough, that objective has not been met.  As for the “astonishing failure” in Iraq shouldn’t Mr. Romney be looking at that fellow that was there before Mr. Obama, the one who got the U. S. involved in a war under false information.  Yeah, that one.