The End Of The Iraq War–Promised Kept–Rebuild America First

The Iraq War is finally ending and our troops are coming home. After nine years of sacrifice from our men and women in uniform, Iraq is a stable and independent democracy. Now that the Iraqis are able to protect their people and run a government, President Obama is bringing our troops home to their families — just as he promised and just as the American people want. Keeping our troops in Iraq longer than necessary takes away our focus from al Qaeda. Keeping our resources tied down in Iraq doesn’t make sense when we need to be prepared to respond to constantly changing threats. As the President fulfills his promise to Americans, we must fulfill our promise to our veterans – and make sure our troops fighting overseas don’t have to fight for jobs when they come home, too.

For those who would say that Obama failed — American troops are getting pushed out before the right time to leave it should be noted that:

• Iraq is now an independent democracy whose people want to take charge of their country. President Obama is keeping his promise to end the war responsibly and bring our troops home.
• Would the President’s political opponents prefer to leave American troops in Iraq indefinitely at the mercy of the Iraqi courts?
• The U.S. will continue our commitment to democracy in the region. That’s why we’re continuing to discuss with Iraq their military training needs, as we would with any other country.
• It is time for us to invest resources in America as opposed to providing welfare to the contractors that benefit from an all out American presence in Iraq.
• It is time to rebuild our roads, bridges, schools, airports, as opposed to doing so in foreign lands where we fail to create US jobs for our struggling middle class.

For those who say this is a failure to secure an orderly transition that will put our victories there at risk.

• This criticism is politically motivated — we’ve been winding down our mission in Iraq for years. It’s time for the Iraqis to own their country.
• Our military presence in Iraq has been among our enemies’ best recruiting tools. Now we can finally take that away from them.
• What is left to be done in Iraq does not require tens of thousands of our troops. Our focus should be on forging a normal relationship as sovereign nations and supporting Iraq as our partner in keeping the region safe and stable.

It is important that you know the following:

• In 2003, the Bush administration took us to war in Iraq claiming that Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda and possessed nuclear weapons. Both of these central justifications for the war turned out to be false: no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties to al Qaeda have been disproven.
• 2 out of 3 Americans oppose the Iraq War and nearly 7 out of 10 Americans support pulling all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Both Iraq and the U.S. agreed three years ago that this was the time to end America’s military presence in Iraq.
• The war in Iraq, now in its 9th year, has cost us more than $800 billion.
• To date, nearly 4,500 American military personnel have died in the Iraq War, and more than 32,000 have been wounded. Nearly 1 million Americans have served in Iraq since the start of the war.
• Among the Americans who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, more than 10,000 veterans are homeless or in programs aimed at keeping them off the streets and more than 11% are unemployed. President Obama has made ending veteran homelessness a top priority for his administration and has a plan to put jobless veterans back to work.

Do not be fooled by those who would attempt to make the President closing down of the war a liability. He campaigned on this tenet. Had he not done it the opposition would have campaigned claiming he broke a promise.

Let me be clear, there was time when both parties had the interest of the entire country in mind. They fought what now seems like simply fights on the margin. Today’s policies that Republicans want to effect on Americans are dangerous and will extinguish the middle class. The wars they instigate is nothing but fuel to the military industrial complex with very little benefit to middle class Americans. After-all even in Iraq they brought in mostly cheap labor as contractors to maximize their profits as opposed to hiring Americans and sending them overseas as contractors.

Americans are busy. It is easy to sit in front of the TV and just accept news as fact. We must remember that our media has shrunken and is now controlled by a few corporate interests and as such cannot be believed in the abstract. Now more than ever you must do your homework. Now more than ever your vote matters for your economic well-being.