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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJeb Bush's new Iraq strategy: Blame Obama
By NICK GASS 5/21/15 6:39 AM EDT
Jeb Bush is back on offense against President Barack Obamas strategy in Iraq, following a difficult week in which the likely presidential candidate struggled to clean up his answer on whether he would have invaded Iraq knowing what he knows now.
It got a little bumpy, but all is well now, Bush said at a roundtable event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday. The ship is stable.
Perhaps a better focus, Bush posited, is Knowing what we know now, Mr. President, should you have kept 10,000 troops in Iraq?
Bush said that Obama abandoned Iraq and lamented the fall of Ramadi to Islamic State terrorists, saying that ISIS didnt exist when my brother was president and that Al Qaeda was decimated under his brother.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/jeb-bush-iraq-obama-fault-118171.html
malaise
(268,999 posts)Someone should remind him - fugging LIAR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_of_U.S._troops_from_Iraq
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The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq began in December 2007 with the end of the Iraq War troop surge of 2007 and was completed by December 2011, bringing an end to the Iraq War. The number of U.S. military forces in Iraq peaked at 170,300 in November 2007.
The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq was a contentious issue in the United States for much of the 2000s. As the war progressed from its initial invasion phase in 2003 to a nearly decade-long occupation, American public opinion shifted towards favoring a troop withdrawal; in May 2007, 55% of Americans believed that the Iraq War was a mistake, and 51% of registered voters favored troop withdrawal.[7] In late April 2007 Congress passed a supplementary spending bill for Iraq that set a deadline for troop withdrawal but President Bush vetoed this bill, citing his concerns about setting a withdrawal deadline.[8][9][10] The Bush Administration later sought an agreement with the Iraqi government, and in 2008 George W. Bush signed the U.S.Iraq Status of Forces Agreement. It included a deadline of 31 December 2011, before which "all the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory".[11][12][13] The last U.S. troops left Iraq on 18 December 2011, in accordance with this agreement.[1][11][12]