Steven Sotloff Beheaded by ISIS

Great question ... But again: I'm guessing the disintegration of their country was probably a big motivator for the Iraqis .... A motivation which didn't exist in 2009.

Does this mean you concede the signing of a SOFA in 2008 which set a withdraw date, and I wasn't "100 percent incorrect"?

 

Bit of a difference between 2009 and 2014, doncha think?

 

Justin, the supposed hang up that President Obama could not overcome in attempting to reach a SOFA prior to our full withdrawal was approval from Iraq's Parliament.

Iraq's Parliament did not approve our current SOFA.

Iraq didn't need any "motivation" to get a new SOFA done, we dropped our demand for the Parliament's approval. That's what's different, and that's how it got done.

If we had dropped that requirement prior to our withdraw, we could have had a SOFA in place, and kept some troops there to serve as advisers.

 

We're not dealing with a couple flukey beheadings. ISIS is a burgeoning international threat. Any president facing such a thing shouldn't tell the American people he doesn't know what to do.

 

If it as that simple, Yankee, why didn't the Bush administration drop that demand in the first place and not sign a SOFA which set the withdraw date?

 

Honesty is so unbecoming.

He should just said, "Don't worry - we have this complicated and multi-dimensional problem in hand.

I'm certain Republicans would have cheered his answer.

 

Easy. Call the Israelis. Tell them that hand we've always tied behind their backs is now untied. Unleash them, on Hamas, ISIS, whoever.

 

WTF does 2008 have to do with 2012/2013?

This has nothing to do with President Bush.

You say President Obama tried to get a new SOFA done. (Which isn't clear based on what he said in the debate with Mitt Romney.)

His holdup was the lack of approval from Iraq's Parliament.

Now, either that was just an excuse, and we didn't really need it, or our troops are operating there under the threat of Iraqi prosecution, as Iraq's Parliament did not approve the current SOFA.

Which is it?

 

ISIS is a funded product of the Saudi king Obama bowed to a few years back.

 

Try to keep up. This discussion started because Old Tony told us Obama abandoned Iraq when he followed the withdraw date set in the SOFA signed by the previous administration.

But please - proceed, Governor.

 

Don't be obtuse.

If President Obama wanted to keep troops in the country, even as advisers, he could have agreed to the same SOFA we are operating under now.

This would have given us greater influence and greater intelligence. It would have helped us stop the growth and the advance of ISIS.

President Obama made a conscious decision to not sign a SOFA -- and blamed the inability to get the sign off from Iraq's Parliament as the reason -- because he wanted to withdraw every last troop.

We are paying for that decision now.