INKS | Bush's plan for Iraq
One of the things that never ceases to amaze me about politics is how short people's memories can be.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than the Iraq war. People often forget that Congress, including many Democrats, allowed former President George W. Bush to invade Iraq. Now there is a new memory being lost: the memory of whose idea it was to get us out of Iraq by 2011.
Is the troop withdrawal plan really President Barack Obama's? No, not really. In fact, "Obama's" plan is quite similar to an agreement that Bush reached with the Iraqis in November.
That plan would have had our troops leaving major Iraqi cities by the end of June 2009, and withdrawing completely from the country by the end of 2011. Obama's plan is to have 100,000 troops out by August 2010 and then pull out the rest by the end of 2011. While they are not exactly the same, the two plans do have some similarities.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, I predicted that Obama would not stick to his 16-month withdrawal plan. I cited several changes in Obama's Iraq plans. In September 2007, he said, "The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year, but now." In January 2008, he came out with "a plan that will get our troops out by the end of 2009." Then came the 16-month plan that he ran most of his campaign on.
I also cited a statement made by the College Democrats during a debate against the College Republicans, where their representative said, "Our goal is not to get out of Iraq, but to put pressure on the leaders there." I brought these points up multiple times during the campaign season, but Obama supporters simply dismissed my claim and told me that they were confident that he would stick to his 16-month plan.
Don't get me wrong; I have no problem with him changing his plan. I think it is good that he is willing to change his plan based on changing circumstances. I just wish he would not have campaigned on such a strict promise to be out of Iraq in 16 months.
I agree with Obama (and Bush) that we should be out of Iraq by the end of 2011; however, to give Obama the credit for this withdrawal plan is unfair to Bush. The plans are quite similar, and both have the same final withdrawal date, but many Democrats are heralding Obama as a hero for coming up with a plan that is similar to the plan the Bush came up with.
Under the Bush administration, the war was misguided and mismanaged, and Bush paid a heavy toll in the media and the minds of the American public for his mistakes. We had T-shirts saying, "Bush lied, thousands died." Now we have Obama, who is not sticking to his 16-month promise, but I do not think that we will be seeing "Obama lied, thousands died" T-shirts, and I am not advocating for the creation of such T-shirts.
All I would like to know is where was the applause from the Democrats when Bush announced reaching an agreement with the Iraqis to be out by the end of 2011? And why was there not a huge outcry from Democrats when Obama changed his plan again?
Nathan Inks is chairman of the College Republicans.
