Featured Veterans frustrated by presidential debate on Iraq war

cont.

"..."Personally, I no longer want them to stay," Othman said. "It's been eight years. I don't think having Americans stay in Iraq will improve the situation at all. Leaving would be better for them and for us. It's time for us to go our separate ways."

The opposition from across Iraq's political spectrum meant that Maliki would have needed to mount a Herculean effort to persuade Iraq's fractious parliament to sign off on any troop extension deals. His closest advisers conceded that such a deal would have virtually no chance of passing.

"Passing a new agreement now in the parliament would be very difficult, if not impossible," Sadiq al-Ribaki, who heads Maliki's political bloc in parliament and has long been one of his closest political advisers, said in a recent interview. "It's a nonstarter for most of the parties and MPs."

Maliki himself said in a recent Reuters interview that U.S. troops could only remain in Iraq if they had no immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, an absolute non-starter with the Pentagon. The hundreds of U.S. troops who will be left behind to guard the mammoth American embassy in Baghdad and its consulates in Erbil and Basra - and to man an embassy office dedicated to weapons sales to the Iraqis - will have limited diplomatic immunity. Even so, American civilian officials will primarily be guarded by private security contractors, not U.S. troops. The State Department has talked of hiring as many as 8,000 such guards.

Obama's Iraq remarks glossed over the American unpopularity in Iraq and his own administration's failed efforts to sell the Iraqis on a troop extension.

"The last American soldier will cross the border from Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success and knowing the American people stand united in our support for our troops," Obama said. "Today I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays."

That will undoubtedly be a good thing for the troops and their families, who have endured years of separation and constant fears of losing loved ones to the grinding conflict. The final withdrawals could also help salve some of the still-gaping political wounds left by the Bush administration's initial decision to launch the invasion, a war which has been opposed by most Americans virtually from the start of the conflict in March 2003.

Ironically, a war launched, at least in part, to bring democracy and political freedom to Iraq will now come to an end precisely because of the free expression of those opinions. Iraqis from all backgrounds and beliefs wanted U.S. troops to leave. Come Dec. 31, for better or for worse, they'll get their wish."

 

And Republicans are so stupid they let themselves be named as toadies of Wall Street. Because of the Jewish dominance some of the big banks on Wall Street has bankrolled the leftist democrat party for years!

 

No kidding. "A purveyor of the war industry":

Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton's State Department

"Under Hillary Clinton, the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments had given millions to the Clinton Foundation.....

...“The word was out to these groups that one of the best ways to gain access and influence with the Clintons was to give to this foundation,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, an advocacy group that seeks to tighten campaign finance disclosure rules. “This shows why having public officials, or even spouses of public officials, connected with these nonprofits is problematic.”

Hillary Clinton’s willingness to allow those with business before the State Department to finance her foundation heightens concerns about how she would manage such relationships as president, said Lawrence Lessig, the director of Harvard University’s Safra Center for Ethics....


Ethics, sheesh, she has none.

This is a long and informative article.