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Replies to post #224034 on Tornado Alley (PROG)
I voted against the war going into that war, and the one thing that really drives me a little bit nuts is people are still listening to the Dick Cheneys and the others who got us into this disastrous situation in the first place by not telling us the truth and the reality of what was going on in Iraq.
To my mind clearly, this is not just an American issue. It is a crisis which the international community has got to deal with, which the region. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran have got to be working with the international community to stop terrorists from taking over Iraq, but I am adamantly opposed to sending ground troops into Iraq, and to get back into that war that we got out of.
I do support the president protecting the embassy. I think some troops giving training to the Iraqi army is okay, but I will adamantly oppose the United States getting involved in a ground war in Iraq again.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We gave Iraq the chance to have an inclusive democracy, to work across sectarian lines, to provide a better future for their children. And, unfortunately, what we’ve seen is a breakdown of trust. There’s no doubt that there has been a suspicion for quite some time now among Sunnis that they have no access to using the political process to deal with their grievances.
So, part of the task now is to see whether Iraqi leaders are prepared to rise above sectarian motivations, to come together and compromise. If they can’t, there’s not going to be a military solution to this problem. You know, there’s no amount of American firepower that’s going to be able to hold the country together. I made that very clear to Mr. Maliki and all the other leadership inside of Iraq.
BOLDUAN: But by going into the country, to support this Iraqi government, to support Iraqi forces now, there’s a real risk that you will very likely be seen as supporting the Shiite side. Isn’t that inflaming the tension further and thus doing exactly what ISIS wants?
OBAMA: Yes, actually not, because the terms in which we’re willing to go in as advisers initially is to do an assessment of, do they still have a functioning chain of command, and is their military still capable? But what we’ve also said is that if we don’t see Sunni, Shia and Kurd representation in the military command structure, if we don’t see Sunni, Shia and Kurd political support for what we’re doing, then we won’t do it.
BOLDUAN: Finally, do you really believe in your gut that this change can happen, that they can unify in Iraq?
OBAMA: I think we’ll know from soon enough. They don’t have a lot of time. There’s a timetable that is in place under their constitution. The good news is that so far at least all the parties have said that we want to abide by the constitution.
So, they had the chance, but, you know, ultimately what I think the vast majority of Americans understand is that we can’t do it for them, and we certainly can’t redeploy tens of thousands of U.S. troops to try to keep a lid on a problem if the people themselves don’t want to solve it.
