In 1975, America watched as US personnel were evacuated from Saigon as the North Vietnamese overran the capital of South Vietnam. After many years of fighting and the loss of over 50,000 American lives, our government did nothing to stop the collapse of the South Vietnamese state whose army America had supposedly made ready to resist aggression.
In many respects, I feel that we are watching a replay of that awful moment in history. America made a major investment of lives and treasure into making Iraq a democracy in the Middle East that would be free of the terrorist threat. Instead of nurturing that nascent Iraqi democracy, however, president Obama withdrew all of our forces and left Iraq to fend for itself. Now, four large cities have fallen to the al Qaeda forces. Baghdad may well be next. Obama is not offering any meaningful help to the Iraqis. Indeed, the only country offering any help is Iran. Just imagine the Islamic republic of Iran sending its Shiite troops to Iraq to fight against the al Qaeda Sunni forces. The ongoing sectarian violence that has claimed nearly 200,000 lives in Syria would get spread to Iraq. Even worse, the theocrazies in Teheran would have major control over the southern third of Iraq. From a geopolitical standpoint, it would be an unmitigated disaster.
There are many moves that could be taken right now by America to try to restore order in Iraq. There is no point to listing them, however. We all know that Obama will not take any action that might re-introduce American forces into Iraq even on a temporary basis. If America had lost the Iraq War, it would be terrible to deal with the aftermath and the negative effects on our national security. But we won the war. WE WON THE IRAQ WAR!!! The problem is that Obama took America's war victory and threw it away. We won the war, but Obama lost the peace.
In many respects, I feel that we are watching a replay of that awful moment in history. America made a major investment of lives and treasure into making Iraq a democracy in the Middle East that would be free of the terrorist threat. Instead of nurturing that nascent Iraqi democracy, however, president Obama withdrew all of our forces and left Iraq to fend for itself. Now, four large cities have fallen to the al Qaeda forces. Baghdad may well be next. Obama is not offering any meaningful help to the Iraqis. Indeed, the only country offering any help is Iran. Just imagine the Islamic republic of Iran sending its Shiite troops to Iraq to fight against the al Qaeda Sunni forces. The ongoing sectarian violence that has claimed nearly 200,000 lives in Syria would get spread to Iraq. Even worse, the theocrazies in Teheran would have major control over the southern third of Iraq. From a geopolitical standpoint, it would be an unmitigated disaster.
There are many moves that could be taken right now by America to try to restore order in Iraq. There is no point to listing them, however. We all know that Obama will not take any action that might re-introduce American forces into Iraq even on a temporary basis. If America had lost the Iraq War, it would be terrible to deal with the aftermath and the negative effects on our national security. But we won the war. WE WON THE IRAQ WAR!!! The problem is that Obama took America's war victory and threw it away. We won the war, but Obama lost the peace.
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