McCain, Graham blame Obama for fall of Fallujah

[babylonsister]

January 04, 2014, 04:04 pm
McCain, Graham blame Obama for fall of Fallujah

By Russell Berman


Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Saturday blamed the Obama administration for reports that the Iraqi city of Fallujah had fallen to al Qaeda forces.

McCain and Graham had been vocal critics of President Obama’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, and they called the reports of al Qaeda gaining control in Fallujah and elsewhere “as tragic as they are predictable.”

“While many Iraqis are responsible for this strategic disaster, the administration cannot escape its share of the blame,” the Republicans said in a statement. “When President Obama withdrew all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011, over the objections of our military leaders and commanders on the ground, many of us predicted that the vacuum would be filled by America's enemies and would emerge as a threat to U.S. national security interests."

“Sadly, that reality is now clearer than ever,” McCain and Graham said. “What's sadder still, the thousands of brave Americans who fought, shed their blood, and lost their friends to bring peace to Fallujah and Iraq are now left to wonder whether these sacrifices were in vain.”

more...

http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/194428-mccain-graham-blame-obama-for-fall-of-fallujah

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Fuck these two.

What else is there to say?

[giftedgirl77]

2. These fuckin clueless buffoons disgust me.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Two assholes, one mouth

a medical first.

[BlueStreak]

30. Is there only one person in the "John McCain Fan Club"?

[warrant46]

3. Maybe they can go back to Viet-Nam and restart the War there again

What ASS CLOWNS

"Americans who fought, shed their blood, and lost their friends to bring peace to Fallujah and Iraq are now left to wonder whether these sacrifices were in vain.” (Note to these idiots just substitute Viet-Nam and put in 58,000 dead)


Little Lindsay needs to be dropped into Fallujah with a bayonet and a Christian Bible

[yuiyoshida]

22. this!

[warrant46]

24. +1

[gulliver]

5. Hopefully Republicans will run on going back to Iraq in 2014 then /nt

[SummerSnow]

27. I hope so. They think everybody is warmongering like them

[Benton D Struckcheon]

6. If these 2 were honest,

what they'd say is that what Bush/The Poodle (anybody remember his name?) unleashed, or rather, to be fair, accelerated, was the process of the Arab countries reworking the boundaries their old colonial masters imposed on them. Those boundaries make about as much sense as someone drawing a boundary that, say, smooshed Texas and a piece of Mexico in on one side, and California and another piece of Mexico in on the other side.
Coastal Syria belongs, if it belongs with anyone, with Lebanon, while inland a piece belongs in the still not quite there state of Kurdistan, while the rest belongs with northern parts of Iraq. Fallujah is the biggest city in that nation that isn't a nation yet. We may yet see that nation emerge.

[polichick]

7. These two need to go on their honeymoon somewhere...

and leave the rest of us alone.

[chungking34]

8. Yes yes, Mccain, because the war was going so swimmingly while Bush was president, wasn't it?

Fucking idiot!

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. To think Gramps could have been president...........

Dear God......................

[malaise]

10. Only in his mind

American people have way more sense

[arcane1]

11. Shame on President Obama for signing the Status of Forces Agreement on November 17, 2008!!

Edited to add: It's right there on page 20. Another case where Obama is being blamed for something that happened before he became president:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090825022056/http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/iraq/SE_SOFA.pdf

[Igel]

20. It's only fair that they echo it.

So many gave Obama props for pulling out the troops, and he himself took credit for the withdrawal and the budget savings. It's still usually claimed on his behalf. He got the US out of Iraq. He brought the troops home. Whatever.

It was politically expedient to make the claim--it made "our guy" look good and the Great Satan look bad. And when it's a good thing to be mislead about, to say * was responsible for the troop withdrawal is to be a sockpuppet of something or other. Whatever the facts say, whatever the documents say, whatever the actual news accounts at the time say.

It's even a bit worse than that. The real "hero" for the troop withdrawal isn't *, but al-Maliki. Obama wanted to keep security forces in Iraq for training and for support past the SOFA-mandated deadline, and argued that point over and over. al-Maliki said "no" over and over--whether he was waiting for a really cushy offer or not is a point both moot and unanswerable--and made the US, which is to say Obama, stick to the agreement.

[moondust]

12. How soon they forget...

...a status of forces agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the United States, signed by President George W. Bush in 2008. It established that U.S. combat forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and all U.S. forces will be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.%E2%80%93Iraq_Status_of_Forces_Agreement

[TwilightGardener]

13. Republican revisionist history: Obama somehow "lost" an occupation of a country that

the prime minister of Iraq no longer wanted us to occupy. We should have committed ourselves to SUUUUURRRGE! forever, spending money and American lives (with no troop immunity, mind you--I think that was a sticking point to the SOFA), convincing the Sunnis and Shia to stop hating each other with bribe money and the point of a gun. All to keep "Al Qaeda" or whichever extremist group out. McCain's Surge-tastic Surge was a tactic that was doomed to fail eventually, because we just can't fucking stay there forever--and certainly not with the manpower required to quell trouble indefinitely. And since these people have no problem slaughtering each other, whether we're there or not, why should our kids and $$$ be spent trying? Hey Republicans, you own the "loss". SUCK IT UP!!

[Aristus]

14. I blame McCain for the fall of Saigon.

When McCain came home, Saigon fell.

COINCIDENCE??? I think not...

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

15. I blame John McCain for this.....(WARNING GRAPHIC)

Fuck you, Gramps

[indepat]

16. 'murika brought death, destruction and white phosphorous et al to Fallujah, all ya dumb-asses

out there.

[Botany]

17. ATTN John McCain

You lost the election.

[spanone]

18. of course they do. why, don't blame the real enemy when you can blame your political enemy

fuck both of those bastards

[Ranchemp.]

19. DaFuque?

How in any way is this Pres. Obama's fault?
This is the fault of Iraq's security forces, plain and simple!!!!

[Igel]

21. You're not thinking outside the box.

The springboard for the occupation of Fallujah and Ramadi was eastern Syria, which has long been a center for Islamist organizing in the Syrian internecine conflict.

Without the arms from Qatar, Turkey, Sa'udiyya they'd be much weaker. And possibly US and French arms.

Without the move to arm rebel factions by the US, the UN prohibition on arming any side in Syria would have stood. Some arms would have gotten through, but less.

That depended entirely on the armed insurrection in Syria. Anything that lengthens or encourages it aids and facilitates additional instability in Anbar Province, Iraq. And while "we" are currently pissed at the relative weakness of the secular-leaning (or at least not Islamist-leaning) Sunni rebels in Syria, it was a matter of glee on the part of many when the Assad regime was losing power, so much so that people barely looked at who was gaining all the ground. When all the rebel factions were gaining territory, they were all glad; it was only when they were brought to a halt that factions turned their attention to each other.

[TwilightGardener]

28. The critiques that I've read were that the arming of rebels that the CIA ultimately did

in Syria was small-scale and of little consequence. Certainly there is spillover from Syria, but Maliki already had his issues with Sunni tribesmen and poor control over certain areas--can't lay that at the president's feet, much as you may like to. We really just don't have much control over that region, and it's hubris to think we do.

[Victor_c3]

23. The whole war was a waste

I was an Infantry Platoon Leader in Iraq from Feb 2004 - Mar 2005 and my unit actually spearheaded the assault into Fallujah in November, 2004. I was rather lucky that my platoon, at the time of the assault, was tasked to provide security for one of three power transfer stations that was feeding Baghdad and I didn't end up in Fallujah although the other platoons in my company did. A lot of my Soldiers were upset and felt cheated to have missed out on the action, but I was not very secretive about my relief.

I knew on a personal level a number of guys who were killed there. A good buddy of mine 1LT Edward Iwan and my boss CPT Sean P. Sims were killed there as well as a number of guys that I had occasional run-ins with. It was a hard operation and a lot more intense than probably most people realize.

That being said, I'm saddened to see that the war was all for nothing. I even think I knew when I was in Iraq that if/when we left that it'd turn into a big pile of crap and that it was a waste. Sadly, it's all turning out to be true.

Like Afghanistan, if we were to have left 5 years ago, now, or 10 years from now it would all end up the same way.

[onethatcares]

26. there were

hundreds of thousands of people that were aware Iraq would turn into a big stinking pile of crap prior to the invasion. Sadly, the
"liberal" media didn't show any of them while the war drums were pounding and the Office of Special Plans was telling us how
great it would turn out, how the flowers and candy would rain down upon the troops.

Jessusonaskateboard, Sybil Edmunds, LtCol Karen Kwiatowski , Media Benjamin and a host of others were way out in front of this.

Again, they were dismissed like they were roaches.

[justhanginon]

35. Thank you and your compadres for your service.

I just cannot imagine what it had to have been like. I'll just leave it at that.

[Atman]

25. He's on his way!

[Solly Mack]

29. They're just pissed about those 1 dollar rugs they won't be getting anymore.

[Brigid]

31. These two clowns need to do everybody a favor and retire.

Last edited Tue Jan 7, 2014, 07:29 PM - Edit history (1)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

32. McCain and his mini-me would blame Obama

for their own cases of hemorrhoids. Everything is Obama's fault.

[DevonRex]

33. The Macabre Duet need to learn a new tune.

At least a little dance number to go along with it.

[muntrv]

34. Do they also blame Obama for Hurricane Katrina?

[kiranon]

36. Mistake was going into Iraq. Bush and the neocons

won Iran's war against Iraq for them. So many brave Americans died for a neocon dream that could never be. US needs to get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. Same result as in Iraq but these are not our battles to fight and these battles are not winnable by the U.S. When history is written about these wars, it will show the bleeding out of this country of its people and its assets. This is not what the neocons wanted but it is what happened. McCain and Graham haven't a clue and would throw away more troops and assets in a fruitless quest for "victory".