“Why Obama must go to Iraq”
Vets for Freedom chairman Pete Hegseth makes the case in the WSJ today. A snippet:
Even more astonishing than Mr. Obama’s absence from Iraq, however, is the fact that he has apparently never sought out a single one-on-one meeting with Gen. Petraeus. The general has made repeated trips back to Washington, but Mr. Obama has shown no interest in meeting privately with him. It’s enough to make you wonder who exactly Mr. Obama listens to when it comes to Iraq?
Mr. Obama frequently decries the danger of “dogmatists” and “ideologues” in public policy, yet he himself has proven consistently uninterested in putting himself in situations where he might be confronted with the hard complexities of this war. It suggests a dangerous degree of detachment and overconfidence in his own judgment.
After all, Mr. Obama was among those in January 2007 who stridently opposed the surge and confidently predicted its failure – even going so far as to vote against funding our soldiers in the field unless the Bush administration abandoned this new approach. It is now clear that Mr. Obama’s judgment on the surge was spectacularly wrong.
Yet rather than admit his mistake, Mr. Obama has instead tried to downplay or disparage the gains our troops have achieved in the past 12 months, clinging to a set of talking points that increasingly seem as divorced from reality as some in the Bush administration were at the darkest moments of the war.
Will Obama go? I doubt it.
Obama can’t afford to risk any exposure to the inconvenient truths on the ground that led Democrats Brian Baird and Joe Donnelly to change their minds and oppose immediate withdrawal.
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Categories: Barack Obama, Iraq
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I will probably go to Iraq before Obama does.
Michelle, did you ask The Gorable for permission to use that?
If nothing else, he chould at least give the ‘appearance’ of being interested in Iraq’s successes.
Code Pink, MoveOn and similar ilk.
Can one even imagine this? Not to mention the face-to-face with GWB before he would take office?
I see a thought bubble over his head: “OMFG! What have I gotten myself into?!”
AH HA ! I have it. He is tired of being made fun of when he says “that is not the Iraq I knew”
Is it any surprise that the ObamaMessiah wants us to lose?
Again I ask you Mr. Obama — If you can reevaluate your 20 year membership at Trinity Church when the circumstances change, why can’t you do the same thing with something as important as Iraq?
David
Right Of The Star Blog
And McShanesty should go to inner city America… not just “poor white” America…
it plays both ways…
We are not voting for president of Iraq…
we are voting for president of America…(some so called “patriots” seem to forget that major fact)
logic is not in the liberal arsenal, misinformation, spinning the facts and just outright lies are though.
Renee_VA #9 - Maybe, just maybe, if inner city America listened to Bill Cosby instead of Jesse Jackson, they would have a better life. Just saw a t-shirt that said it all. “Get a job. Help pay my Social Security.”
You know, I suspect you wrote this intending humor, but I really think there is an element of truth in it. I have been thinking alot about that lately. His ego is so big, and he has been stroked by so many, that this may have whirlwinded out of control, and I think there’s an element of Obama that has had that very thought in the back of his mind. It’s not unlike trying to B.S. your way into something, and then suddenly when it works, you think, “uh oh; now what?”
#10
That would make sense if we weren’t FIGHTING IN IRAQ. Obama wants to be commander in chief, doesn’t it make just a little bit of sense for him to know what the hell is going on in the areas he will be commanding? Also McCain has gone to the inner cities.
Friday, Nov. 21, 2003
Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with another terror attack that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.
Rene_Va
If Obama wants to be the POTUS, he will also be the Commander in Chief, I would think that a visit to Iraq and meetings with Petraeus would be a necessity rather than a choice. He’s not running for class president of the local high school.
Good question.
How can Obama go to Iraq and tell the soldiers he wants a defeat.
Any surprise here? He is of course the newly minted Democrat nominee and he must sqauwk the party line, no matter how unrealistic it is.
And he will never set foot in Iraq again.
But,..but…he was president of the Harvard Law Review. Hmmph.
A US pol doesn’t learn much by going to Iraq. He or she can’t travel enough to see anything. They mostly get powerpoint briefings in meeting rooms in the green zone, which could be done just as well in the US.
For all McCain’s trips to Iraq, he still doesn’t seem to understand it very well. The other day he said troops are back to pre surge levels. This was not a slip, as he repeated it and defended the statement. But it is false.
How false and odious of you to compare Iraq with inner cities. I realize that you were reaching but this is a stretch of epic proportions. Get a grip.
Verbal diarrhea.
Maybe he just doesn’t want us to win the war against his brother Muslims.
Not only does BHO, when something is not right to do some thing utterly stupid instead. When it comes to Iraq when something is working, he wants to do something utterly stupid
This is a weak defense of Obama. State the obvious, he wants a defeat and the soldiers to come home immediately. Why would he care one wit about whats going on in Iraq?
You’re right. Iraq is in much better condition.
LGM, well that explains why your fellow libs screamed at bush for not going there, before he did. Fact is Obama didn’t meet with the commanding general of the iraq war WHEN HE WAS IN WASHINGTON DC!!!! You say McCain doesn’t understand the war, okay, but he has actualy been there. Obama has not.
Obama has to choose between the loony left of his party and the center of his country if he wants to get elected. He proved at the AIPAC conference that he will talk the talk, and will probably do so on Iraq. My main concern is whether he will walk the walk if he gets elected.
Let’s see - the constitution requires the President to be the Commander in Chief, yet the CiC seems disinterested in reviewing new information about a war that the US is involved in….unless he shifts gears between now and the election, he is defacto unqualified to be the President of the US.
I see that school has let out for the year, and Skippy is out to play. I wonder if he has spoke to any recently returned military personnel about the status of the war? I doubt that it’s in the Code Pink or MoveOn.org note cards.
Maybe hes just smart and knowing he is going to be the next president of the USA, it doesn’t make sense. He had secret service protection a long time ago, and I’m sure even if he wanted to, he would be DENIED.
I have aqlways said that McCain should challenge Obama to a debate in Iraq with the troops asking the questions.
LGM, when was the last time you went to Iraq? I am currently there right now and I have seen more than just power point presentations and no I am not in the military (I used to be though). Sure Iraq is a dangerous place, but the politicians and USO performers that come over here do not just stay in the Green Zone as you like to bleieve (we just had Dane Cook come to our base up North a few days ago). Next time try talking to people who have actually been in Iraq not just what you read on the Daily KOS
Apparently, a US pol (Obie) doesn’t learn much ever. Period. Why doesn’t he revert to his fallback position of - that’s not the Iraq I knew.
Doesn’t change the fact that your beloved Obie is bitterly clinging to the notion that Iraq is a failure instead of realizing that the Iraqi people now have hope of a better future… brought about through the blood & sweat of our troops.
Michelle, this is a false statement. Barack Obama has said over and over that “we will have to be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in.” You can reference almost every one of Obama’s campaign speech transcripts and those from the many debates over the past 6 months.
While I initially supported President Bush in the invasion and removal of saddam hussein my opinion has changed having heard directly about the situation there from two family members who have served a combined 5 tours of duty in Iraq. We should be out of that hell hole by no later than the end of 2009 no matter what IMHO.
So, sayeth lgm.
That would be recurring verbal diarrhea. We swooped in the other day on another thread, pooped his PowerPoint® dribble and swooped out.
LGM, get off your troll A$$ and you go to Iraq. I’ll hook you up with my husband. MAYBE YOU CAN LEARN SOMETHING TOO!!.
To the rest of you, sorry to shout. I agree school is out and troll has nothing else to do but wait for summer school to start.
BHO is the ultimate example of the self-centered, elitist, defeatists that populate the Dem-O-Crap party … He is totally unqualified to be the POTUS in every way measurable …
You can’t take away his talking points like that, TS.
I’m sorry I forgot to use this
to repel lgm the troll
True Soldier, I maybe over there soon, My last training to reclass as 88m is in 2 weeks……
sonofdy, if you ever roll with a convoy up North to Kirkuk drop me a line.
That’s right lgm. Politicians would learn more by reading the blogs of University of Michigan professors than seeing firsthand what’s goin’ on, what’s goin’ on.
Which politician told you that “he or she can’t travel enough to see anything”? Or are you just pulling this out of your lgm?
What difference does him going to Iraq make? Seriously, do you folks think he’s going to go over there and have an epiphany resulting in a complete 180 on his Iraq opinions?
Surely you’re not that naive. He could do that now without going over there. Don’t get me wrong, he should go over there. But don’t fool yourselves into thinking it will make one bit of difference when it comes to what he says about Iraq.
Now this makes sense:
I’ve never once sought out a meeting with Petraeus either… does that mean I’m a bad person, or merely one who presumes Petraeus has better things to do with his time?
dave_r,
Are you running for the office of president of the USA?
xblade,
That’s why I said if he visits Iraq and comes back and is asked if he witnessed any changes, he could extol - that’s not the Iraq I knew. What? It’s worked before….
I don’t think that anyone really believes he would find “change” in his thoughts on Iraq.
This is why I suggested McCain should issue a debate challenge in Iraq with the troops asking the questions. This way the public would get to hear the concerns and questions the troops have without the ability to whitewash it. That would do more to sway public opinion on Iraq than anything.
You are correct. D’ohbama is just too intellectually lazy to seek out information on this subject. How will going to Iraq help his shorties?
“Clinging to a set of talking points…”
Now Thats funny!
I guess that’s the only way he could lose the election is getting assassinated. Well it hasn’t happened here, so lets send him to a war zone. I bet his advisors are against that trip.
You know I like this. In fact, I think Reverend “God Damn America” Wright should allow John McCain time in the pulpit at Trinity United. And after McCain let Bill Cosby be next on the roster (as some other reader said). Let them listen to McCain’s story of being a Prisoner of War and how much he loves this country that gives them the freedom to say anything they want.
Also, when people speak about Obama’s life being the “american dream”; they leave out the fact that what he had was the “typical” black upbringing: his Dad became a deadbeat Dad when Obama was 2 years old, he and his mother went on food stamps, and Obama ended up being raised by his grandparents. Thank goodness for the grandparents.
However, I’d find Obama much more believable now when he speaks about his grandparents, including his grandfather the soldier, if when choosing to write his first book, he hadn’t chosen to write it about the Deadbeat Dad and instead wrote it about the couple that took him in and raised him and made sure he got into Ivy League schools.
Oh but, that wouldn’t get me nominated for President, he says.
Obama has such a following in the MSM that he does not have to do any of the things that other politicians do. This morning on Good Morning America, GMA did a story on the anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s murder. After a sorrowful and moving tribute to Bobby Kennedy, the GMA story morphed into a story about how Barack is the continuation of Bobby. It was the most sickening thing I have seen on television since Chris Matthews said that he felt a sensation running up his legs and beyond when he hears Barack speak. The GMA report ended with photos of a dying Bobby Kennedy juxtaposed with a photo of Barack Obama. The message was clear. If you want to finish Bobby’s journey, then you must support Barack.
Senator Obama has learned that with this type of obsequious media, he doesn’t have to bother with actually meeting with our top generals.
Guess you missed this quote that took me 10 seconds to find:
“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 — now,” the Illinois senator says.”
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Sep/12/br/br6275409318.html
Gee when you figure how many politicians have visited Iraq and none of them have been assasinated it kind makes that a bit of a lame argument for not going. Even Bush has been here a few times and believe me I am sure they would rather try to take Bush out then the guy who has been given the Hamaas seal of approval.
Truesoldier:
Sure put an army around him like when McCain went, but what’s the sense? It be like Barack needs to go to North Korea and test the radioactivity around the debunked plant, he’s running for president, not for the maintenance supervisors position and it’s time to realize that.
lgm, you know nothing about leadership.
A leader can never know everything. They have to learn from their subordinates whether it be the war, healthcare, the economy, global warming, etc.
How much a leader can learn is determined by their inherent capability AND their relationship with their subordinates. A great leader can digest second hand information, he can distinguish between the extraneous and pertinent, he can ask probing questions that will get the truth out.
However, if you never meet with your subordinates, if you never roll up your sleeves and visit them where they work, you will remain clueless.
Another point, which is lost upon you and apparently Obama too, is that you not only visit the troops to get information but you also go to them to give them focus and morale. One sure way to demoralize your team (whether it be in the military, sports, or business) is for a leader to show no interest or no faith in what you do.
Obama believes the Iraq war should not be won, that it is unwinnable. So for Obama to refuse to go to Iraq to meet with GEN Patraeus and the Iraqi government, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
McCain seems to think it will.
That’s actually a very good idea, if it’s allowable. Heck, a debate before the military should happen every election period.
Even Republicans think he is the leader. Bravo!
silkyinfamous,
One of the presidents jobs is COMMANDER OF THE US ARMED FORCES!!!!
Are you really telling me he shouldn’t even be bothered to go visit what might be HIS troops to find out what is going on, on the ground, from them??? I would have thought that it might be important since it will be one of his most important roles. Or is he just to stuck up to lower himself enough to visit the troops he will send out to die? This is why the military overwhelming dispises liberals.
I mean the guy wouldn’t even meet the commanding general when he was in washington dc!!!
I didn’t think the elections were to November, and yet I keep hearing Barack is the leader.
Sonofdy,
Obama is not worried about being the commander of troops as he plans to turn tail and run if he gets elected. His next step would be to dismantle the military under the guise of “they failed in Iraq so lets tear the military apart so we can rebuild it” which he never will rebuild it. Just one more way for him to appease Iran.
“Leader” of the leftwing agenda…point man…banner carrier. You know, that kind of “leader”.
So, let me get this straight. You libs think it is perfectly acceptable for Obie to continue to extol that Iraq is a failure when, as Michelle has pointed out that several Dems have visited and have returned with a different outlook with respect to withdrawing our troops. Given what is at stake and this isn’t a dress rehearsal, it would behoove, nay, I would implore, Senator Obie to visit and see for himself what the goings on are on the ground. Withdrawing out troops prematurely (i.e., surrendering) should be a last option if it is to be an option at all. Instead, you all attempt to shield him and dismiss the idea that he should go because he is the anointed one. How irresponsible, condescending and downright dangerous is this line of thinking?
When the videos and soundbites surfaced about Rev. Wright you all indicated that it was irresponsible if one did not watch or listen to it in its entirety. Yet, Obie gets a pass for claiming that the war is a failure when just about all of the evidence points in the opposite direction. Liberals….
silkinfamous,
Please don’t try to sound more stupid than you already do. If obama wins these will be his troops, but he has shown a complete lack of any leadership skills. In fact he has shown a complete lack of intrest in what is actualy happening there. Your pathetic weak attempt at humor is just exposing how truely weak obama would be as a military leader. He has shown no intrest in hearing from the guys on the ground as to what is actualy going on there. To cover this you are trying, in vain, to twist peoples words to fit your narrow, unsupportable viewpoint. Pathetic
No, he’s not OUR leader…yet.
But, as many have pointed out, Obama’s conception of the situation in Iraq is stale. It is grounded in dogma, not facts. If Obama wants to be CiC, if he wants our votes, if he wants a mandate when (if) he gets into the Oval Office, he needs to demonstrate to us and the leaders of other countries that he will be competent in this role.
So far, the only thing presidential I’ve seen from Obama that he’s as slick as Slick Willy.
Olympian2008 #34
Just why do you want to hand the country (and a victory) over to the terrorists?
Your credibility is in doubt…
You know, I keep hearing the Dems/Libs say that electing McCain will be like having a third term of Bush.
Well folks, I’d rather have a third term of Bush (McCain) than to have a second term of Carter (Obama) and that’s what we’ll get if BHO gets elected. I guess people have forgotten what Mr. Carter gave us, high interest rates, gave away the Panama canal, embassy employees held hostage, etc. etc. etc.
.
Typical LGM. Swoops down, drops one ill informed turd on the windshield and flaps off. Too much time on his hands………..
Well said. From what I have heard the embassy hostages have said they knew they would be killed if Carter was reelected, because the Iranians knew their was nothing to fear from Carter. And I seem to remeber that some of the hostages have accused the Iranian President of being one of their abductors (notice how that story died down).
It’s not me who will be upset when Obama is elected leader in November. What’s not making sense is this drastic urge for him to take on presidential matters when he is not the elected president. It shows bad taste politically and would ultimately be used against him surely on Hannity’s America. For all you to say he doesn’t care about our troops is ridiculous. He is on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Why don’t you look up the SAVE Act and the Homes for Heroes Act. Hey, why not look up the Lane Evans Veterans Health and Benefits Improvement Act. Yea, only a sissy pacifist would want to provide food, shelter, and health services to our wounded warriors. Get Real.
SPCOlmpicies, your post on leadership should be required reading for every politician and business leader in the country.
Obama’s problem is he belongs to a culture which is uncomfortable with and devalues people who serve in the military. It was born during the Vietnam war. Sad to say most of our news sellers occupy the same boat.
And Silkyinfamous resorts to the typical liberal debate method, if loosing the debate try to change the subject.
This guy is funny! He said that he admires Clinton’s commitment to fight to the very end but says that our troops should quit in Iraq?????
If this guy becomes the Commander in Chief stand by for moral to take a dump in the military.
sonofdy,
If only you’d asked me that months ago, when it might have made a difference…
In any event, even if I were, or were I Obama, it might still be reasonable to suppose that Petraeus is a busy guy doing what he needs to be doing, and to not take his time away from his duties. You’ve heard, I’m sure, of the supposed briefing of all the top-secret, what’s-really-going-on stuff every President gets just before being sworn in. Candidates don’t get that briefing until they’ve won, so you can’t suppose they’ll be able to even know what the right questions to ask of a man such as Petraeus might be. Meeting with him before that briefing is a waste of both person’s time.
Unless that briefing is fictional? But I don’t know that to be the case.
Silkyinfamous - I just love how you confuse political posturing with real concern and caring for the troops.
Go team !!
I don’t think he will go either - MoveOn.$rg won’t let him.
With the DNC’s die hard supporters and the MSM pulling for him, Obama could end up as POTUS. It’s a scary thought that someone as naive as he could be our next Commander-in-Chief. *sigh*
silkyinfamous,
If he does get elected, he will enter office completely uniformed as to what is actualy going on in the war if he continues on this path. That is EXACTLY what liberals have been attacking bush for since 2004. So he was on that panel, so he made a few token votes. So what. I reject his token moves because he refuses to look at the current situation on the ground. I knew he was weak when he couldn’t handle a debate hosted by fox. Now I see he is willfully blind to the facts on the ground and too foolish to correct that. So you candidate is a weak, blind fool. If he wins this year he will not get my respect. Period.
Lets see first of all teh SAVE Act is an immigration reform bill, Secondly out of all the bills you listed Obama only Sponsored one The Lane Evans bill which I can tell you does nothing all that new as they already had set up the exact same program through the VA and the Military when I got out in 2006 (he did not prpose the bill till Jan 2007) So try again.
I don’t think you’ll be able to say the same in 2012 if he’s in and is going for a 2nd term. Think Carter.
It makes perfect sense when you consider that Obama’s resume is the thinnest of any Presidential front runner in history . He only has about 5 months to build himself up, to make up for McCain’s 50 years of service (counting from when he was first commissioned as an Ensign). Obama talks a good game, and even if we all agreeded with his ideas, he doesn’t have the record to show that he can git’er done.
McCain has been a leader in the Navy. He’s been in the House or Senate for 26 years.
Obama is a first term jr. Senator that was formally a ‘community organizer’ (what ever that is!).
What the post said, and what the posters have been pushing is that Obama doesn’t care about the military. He didn’t just make “token” votes. He was the Author or a Co-Author on these pieces of legislation. What a Senator does is what he did. Do some research on these items and tell me he doesn’t care about the troops. He will go to Iraq. In January of 2009. That I feel confident in.
Sheltering All Veterans Everywhere Act (SAVE Act)
He authored one piece of legistlation that does nothing that has already been done. According to the Senate archives he did not co-sponosr any of the other bills to include the immigration reform bill you mentioned (try reading all the posts before responding you will save us all a lot of time and yourself some embarsement).
SAVE Act (S. 1180)
Homes for Heroes Act (S. 3475)
Silkyinfamous - I have done the research, and he doesn’t care about the troops. Obama has never cared about the military.
Just in case you didn’t know, you can put yourself in as “author” and “co-author” long after the legislation was actually authored even if you had absolutely nothing to do with it. That’s how congress works. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that he never even saw the legislation, that only a few members of his staff even bothered to look.
Obama is the current king of token votes.
Silkyinfamous
Your naiveté regarding the names placed on pieces of legislation is mind-boggling …
They like to put names on these things that make them sound like they are worthy of passage to the idiots who follow only the MSM for their news of what is going on in the world …
Then … when the real meat of the thing is exposed (the DREAM act comes to mind) the real purpose has basically little or nothing of value to do with the implications from the “name” …
The surge may be a successful surge, but looking at the big picture, the war remains a fiasco: no WMD, no shining city on the hill that other Middle East nations will envy and crave.
Bin Laden, on the other hand, is achieving his goals. His primary goal was to get American troops out of Saudi Arabia, and Bush caved in on this. As far as Jihad against the Zionist/Crusaders, I would say he is doing a pretty good job of bankrupting the U.S. As Reagan bankrupted the Soviet Union by proposing Star Wars, every time bin Laden makes a video, Bush and Cheney fill their pants and want to spend another trillion dollars. A stunning achievement for a caveman with 15 bodyguards. Terrorist attacks are perhaps not the only strategy.
As far as McCain’s military feats, I’m not sure getting captured and tortured is a strategy we want to repeat on a national scale.
But does he care about what the military cares about?
I can only speak for myself and others in my immediate circle but I think ‘victory’ is pretty darn high on that list of what military people desire.
And if he does care about the military, why is he against modernization. He has specifically said he’ll scale down Future Combat Systems. He may pull us out of Iraq. He may even reduce or close bases abroad to bring more troops home.
But is he going to do when China perceives us so weak and so pacified that we likely won’t respond to an invasion of Taiwan. China is building up their blue water navy. The PLA is reportedly hacking into our commercial and government networks. So how is going to prepare for or avoid a conflict in Asia?
I will also point out that “SAVE” and “Home for Heroes” are exactly the kind of disengenuous names that liberals use to disguise the true intent of legislation. It’s like “The Fairness Doctrine”. “Fairness” for who?
Why, the Democratic Party National leadership, of course! Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi both made their “feelings” and take of the situation there known to one and all. Obama cannot go against party sentiments, aside from which, where would his often tossed out difference from Hillary be, if he changes his mind?
Author means to me the person who wrote it. Co-Author means it was joint. What am I missing?
Remember Barack’s infamous words regarding “bombing Pakistan” if he knew bin Laden was there without regard to the Pakistani government, and a quick turn-around after pulling troops from Iraq “if he sees Al Qaeda there”? Obama is so clueless on military maneuvers. How could he believe pulling troops and realigning them in the battlefields are that easy?
He believes that things will magically conform to his wishes by a click of his fingers. A touch of Hollywood! Except that Barack does not understand EVEN Hollywood magic!
hmmm…I guess silky is ignoring me
Another “don’t let the facts get in the way” kind of person!
Touche’! That alone speaks volumes about Obama. He idolizes and heap accolades to his father, while he only remembers his maternal grandparents’ later, when finding the need to bolster his claim to “patriotism”.
The real answer is; there is no need for him to go. BHO has made up his mind already. Surrender and bring the troops home no matter the cost. There is no need for him to go to Iraq or visit with anybody.
silky …
My statement had to do with the NAME OF THE LEGISLATION … not the author or sponsors …
Silkyinfamous, you’re so sure he’ll show his sorry behind up in Iraq in January and will be thrown laurels by the troops for doing so don’t you? Petulant child. I was in the reserves when Bill Clinton came to visit. We were admonished-strongly admonished by our CO’s that regardless of our thoughts and feelings we must be respectful and polite. I remember our Col. telling us he was sure that maybe 98% of us standing in formation did not vote for him, but we must be “good Soldiers” and show him respect no matter how we felt. We did. Every military Ball I went to during the Clinton administration had minimal applause when we would toast the CIC. Every Ball I’ve been to since W has been in still has standing o’s. I’m going to the Army Birthday Ball in DC with my former father in law in about 10 days. I imagine that the response will be the same as it was the last time I went to a Ball in HI in ‘05.
We all know how much the dims love the IVAW but for the rest of the military “they’re cold blooded killers”.
The only valid reason for Obama not to go see what’s going on in Iraq is because it would decrease morale for the troops to look at that elitist ballerina.