The Iraq War Is Over if You Want It*

*John and Yoko

President Obama announced that the last American combat troops will be withdrawn from Iraq in December as required by the Force Status Agreement between the United States and Iraq. Previously, President Obama had proposed keeping about 20,000 troops in Iraq for training purposes if the Iraqis agreed. The coalition government of Iraq could not agree and they wouldn't give American troops immunity from Iraqi prosecution. That was the deal breaker and President Obama agreed to end our presence on the date agreed to.

After skulking about on the killing of Gaddafi, all the Republican candidates for President unanimously opposed President Obama's actions and voiced concern that all the "progress" made in Iraq would vanish and all our blood and treasure would have been wasted. Senator McCain and Graham led the charge in the Congress. This leads the way to "Who Lost Iraq?" being raised in the presidential election. And it will also lead to "Who cares?"

John Bolton tried to explain to Greta Van Sistern of Fox how President Obama blew the negotiations with Iraq and should have put more pressure on Maliki to agree for our troops to remain. To her credit, Greta fired back that the original withdrawal date had been signed by George W. Bush. Bolton then said that Bush should never have signed that agreement.

President Obama campaigned on leaving Iraq and in fact drew criticism from his left flank when he agreed to stay until now. The best the Republicans can come up with is that Iran threatens Iraq. But Iran threatened Iraq when we invaded and subsequently gained enormous infuence in the U.S.-backed government. All this pre-dates President Obama.

President Obama's press conference also included his national security team who talked about on-going security agreements with Iraq and foreign assistance. Where I found them gilding the lilly were their boasts about the new flood of investments in the country. The Obama team also noted that all relevant members of Congress on both sides of the aisle had been informed about the present date for withdrawal and America's on-going relationship with Iraq. There was also a video conference between President Obama and Prime Minister Maliki where the Iraqi thanked the American people for their sacrifice in liberating the country.

I guess the Republicans will run on re-invading Iraq, one of the least popular policy decisions in American history. Reporters fanned out across the country to get the reaction from the Armed Forces. All the reports were ecstatic with expressions of jubilation. Military families said this would allow them to plan their lives without the endless tours of duties and the upheaval on their families. There were no dissenting views among the rank and file about whether we should withdraw or not. It's clear from our military that we are out of there.

While in Ohio, I was thinking that President Obama now has a better counter-terrorism record than his two predecessors combined. In 2 1/2 years, he has done more damage to terrorist networks than those in the previous 16 years. Will that benefit his re-election? I doubt it. But it raises the interesting question whether Republicans can be trusted with national security. Historically their strong point,it is clear that President Obama is head and shoulders above them in this area. One Washington pundit argued that if the Republicans win in 2012, they should keep President Obama to handle foreign policy and defense.

It should be remembered that President Obama took immense heat as candidate when he proposed withdrawing from Iraq. It was one of the issues that provided him his win. He made his promise and he has kept it. Contrary to the Republican critics, I think it is a very, very good thing when America upholds its commitments. The country owes President Obama a debt of gratitude for extracting us from this ill-conceived war fought for reasons that proved to be fantasies of people who never fought in any wars yet constantly advocate more wars for the United States.