U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said on Wednesday that Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush was wrong to blame the Obama administration for the current instability in Iraq.

Ahead of his official retirement on Friday, Odierno, the former highest-ranking officer in Iraq and one of the architects of the 2007 troop surge there, sought to set the record straight.

“I remind everybody that us leaving at the end of 2011 was negotiated in 2008 by the Bush administration. That was always the plan, we had promised them that we would respect their sovereignty,” Odierno said during his final press conference at the Pentagon.

In a speech on Tuesday at the Reagan Library in California, Bush criticized President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for what he characterized as a premature decision to bring 90,000 troops home.

He also said...


“I think the military operations we conducted provided an opportunity for us to be successful,” Odierno said, a refrain he has diplomatically repeated since his dramatic departure from Baghdad.

Asked if the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a mistake, Odierno said, “All I know is that Saddam Hussein was an incredibly ruthless person who was suppressing his population.”

“I talked to all the Iraqi generals,” he said. “They’ll tell you there were nuclear weapons. They believed there were. The bottom line is they absolutely believe there were nuclear weapons on the ground. To say we shouldn’t have went in there now because we know there wasn’t any or we didn’t find any, I think is a little bit of hindsight.


He also said re ISIS:

When U.S soldiers were in Iraq during the last decade, it “allowed us to be honest brokers” between different sects, Odierno said. “I think maybe as we all look back, leaving some soldiers on the ground might have helped a little bit and maybe prevented where we are now,” he said.


http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/08/odierno-wades-gop-war-over-iraq-war/119083/

Why did Hillary vote to send troops to die in Iraq?

She must be a real FUCKTARD.

O is to blame for this one. It was planned to force Iraq in some form to accept US troops again.

iLester Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> O is to blame for this one. It was planned to
> force Iraq in some form to accept US troops again.


Racist!

NOTHING is Obama's fault!

“I remind everybody that us leaving at the end of 2011 was negotiated in 2008 by the Bush administration. That was always the plan, we had promised them that we would respect their sovereignty,” Odierno said during his final press conference at the Pentagon.

WingNut Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why did Hillary vote to send troops to die in
> Iraq?
>
> She must be a real FUCKTARD.


Hillary Clinton may not be Presidential material but you are most deffintly a woman hater. How many times have you been rejected in life?
Women might appreciate you more if you just grew a set.

>Asked if the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a mistake, Odierno said, “All I know is that Saddam Hussein was an incredibly ruthless person who was suppressing his population.”

Not to be hard-hearted, but the job of the US president doesn't include making the lives of people in other countries better. There were US strategic interests at stake, sure, but there was a very good reason the first Bush didn't do what his son did, and making things better for the average Iraqi didn't enter into the equation. Bush I knew it'd be a quagmire, and he was right.

>“I talked to all the Iraqi generals,” he said. “They’ll tell you there were nuclear weapons. They believed there were. The bottom line is they absolutely believe there were nuclear weapons on the ground. To say we shouldn’t have went in there now because we know there wasn’t any or we didn’t find any, I think is a little bit of hindsight.

Check me if I'm wrong on this, but I don't think we went in on the word of Iraqi generals that there were WMDs. We had some intel that there might be WMD (turns out this was bogus) but the lie Bush II's folks told was that there was solid evidence of WMD which were a threat to us. There wasn't, and if memory serves, they knew there wasn't. Hindsight works both ways - you can't go back and say 'if we knew then what we know now, we'd have been able to make a much stronger (but still wrong) case for invading Iraq.'

All this seems kinda moot. I got solid money says that we hear 'everything was going great till Obama pulled out early' night and day as a GOP talking point on Fox as we get closer to election time. This kinda derp-farming doesn't always bear fruit but any attempt to reinstitute Bush doctrines are gonna have to start by explaining how the most colossal fuck-up in recent history wasn't actually the fault of the administration that made it.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2015 09:04AM by abelard.

abelard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >Asked if the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a
> mistake, Odierno said, “All I know is that
> Saddam Hussein was an incredibly ruthless person
> who was suppressing his population.”
>
> Not to be hard-hearted, but the job of the US
> president doesn't include making the lives of
> people in other countries better. There were US
> strategic interests at stake, sure, but there was
> a very good reason the first Bush didn't do what
> his son did, and making things better for the
> average Iraqi didn't enter into the equation.
> Bush I knew it'd be a quagmire, and he was right.
>
> >“I talked to all the Iraqi generals,” he
> said. “They’ll tell you there were nuclear
> weapons. They believed there were. The bottom line
> is they absolutely believe there were nuclear
> weapons on the ground. To say we shouldn’t have
> went in there now because we know there wasn’t
> any or we didn’t find any, I think is a little
> bit of hindsight.
>
> Check me if I'm wrong on this, but I don't think
> we went in on the word of Iraqi generals that
> there were WMDs. We had some intel that there
> might be WMD (turns out this was bogus) but
> the lie Bush II's folks told was that there was
> solid evidence of WMD which were a threat
> to us. There wasn't, and if memory serves, they
> knew there wasn't. Hindsight works both ways -
> you can't go back and say 'if we knew then what we
> know now, we'd have been able to make a much
> stronger (but still wrong) case for invading
> Iraq.'
>
> All this seems kinda moot. I got solid money says
> that we hear 'everything was going great till
> Obama pulled out' night and day as GOP talking
> points on Fox as we get closer to election time.
> This kinda derp-farming doesn't always bear fruit
> but any attempt to re-institute Bush doctrines are
> gonna have to start by explaining how the most
> colossal fuck-up in recent history wasn't actually
> the fault of the administration that made it.


So what's new? Thousands of humans die because of a lie.

>“I remind everybody that us leaving at the end of 2011 was negotiated in 2008 by the Bush administration. That was always the plan, we had promised them that we would respect their sovereignty,” Odierno said during his final press conference at the Pentagon.

So did Obama get us out of Iraq or did Bush do it? I understand Obama was the one who withdrew the troops. Everyone keeps telling me that Obama got us out of foreign wars.

Just give Obama a chance. He's only had six years. We can still make progress in the Middle East. Somewhere. Maybe. Hopefully.

If the top General in the US says Jeb Bush is completely full of shit and a fucking liar - I believe it.

America deserves better.

Jeb Bush had a colonoscopy and he's going to have to drop out of the race. They found a brain tumor.

I think Odierno just killed any chance Jeb Bush will ever be elected President.

Farewell Jeb.

>I think Odierno just killed any chance Jeb Bush will ever be elected President.

Gonna disagree. Many times the early front runner flames out, and this time I don't this'll even be necessary as Mr. Trump has no intentions of actually running for the white house. Second, money will win out, and Jeb!'s family connections have deep pockets. My prediction: he'll win the nom but lose the election, to whom ... not quite sure. Might be Hillary, might not.