Nitro, what would it take for you to give the guy a little credit? I mean he has ammended his Iraq timeline after talking to the generals...doesn't that seem smart?
jdkeepsmiling, it's really simple, forget the fact that I am a veteran (Iraq and much earlier). The president is politicizing the war in Iraq (if you can still call it that) by allocating money, yours and mine, to the tune of $190 billion a year until 2019. Of course he has no plan of spending that. It's over. But he is going to turn around, probably near election time, and tell the American people how he saved the taxpayers billions by withdrawing from Iraq when they were due to leave anyway. That my friend is dishonest and he deserves no credit for it.
Additionally, the president is fond of throwing around the phrase that he inherited the economic problem (despite the fact he was part of the problem, the Senate, the last four years). So when he refers to Iraq why doesn't he call it the victory he inherited? He was wrong about the surge and just can't bring himself to admit he was wrong (and he's been asked directly). When he and many of the other Democrats were threating to withhold funds for the troops in 2007 they lost my respect completely. Using your ON troops as a political tool during a war is despicable in my eyes, others see things differently. I never stated he claimed victory, he was part of the cut and run group, I call them defeatists. My post about his "delivering us" from Iraq was sarcasm.
He tried to work with congressional conservatives on the stimulus plan before the idiot Dem. congresspeople got in the way.
Passing a bill that nobody had time to read before being passed does not inspire confidence in the Democratic leadership IMO. Obama went to Williamsburg before his Democrat congress members and trashed the Republicans for wanting to look at the bill. He used what he refered to during the campaign as the "politics of fear" to scare folks into supporting the bill, sight unseen, without debate or input. Does that sound responsible to you? This bill needed to be passed so quickly, why? It didn't save my job, are you seeing a benefit? It was just to push an agenda through without questions, plain and simple.
What would make you happy, if we annoucnced that we were staying there at 150,000 tropps for the next ten years, would you be on here singing his praises...probably not, you would be ripping him a new one for not listening to the guys on the ground, exactly what he just did.
An agreement was in place with the Iraqis for a withdrawal by 12/31/2011 anyway. I'm not unhappy he's pulling troops out. What would give you the idea that I want troops to remain? What disappoints me is he didn't tell the troops what a victory they achieved (despite his party's efforts and because that would give credit to the previous administration). He and the Democratic Congress didn't get the failure there that they wanted in 2006, so they diminish what the troops did there by not acknowledging the accomplishments, which were liberating a nation and instituting the only Democratic Muslim nation in the middle-east. Sometime it is all in what is not said. Listen to his speech, it's weak.
As for Afghanistan, I wish him luck. It will definitely be a hard row to hoe, due to the fact that they (the Taliban) operate from a "friendly" country. I do want a victory there as well, that would make me happy, and it wouldn't bother me at all if this president pulled it off.
Don't worry I firmly believe the Republicans made some huge mistakes over the last few years. That doesn't mean I'll follow this guy blindly. You need to stop giving any politicians slack, they are doing things now that will affect your grandchildren. Hope this answers your questions.