The Hill News

Last week’s announcement by President Obama that all troops would be out of Iraq by the end of this year was welcomed service members and their families.  The reactions of the current presidential candidates were strikingly dissimilar.  Characteristic of those reactions was Mitt Romney’s portrayal of the withdrawal as an “astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq.”  Such statements reveal a fundamental lack of understanding about Iraq, our military, and perhaps even U.S. national security policy as a whole.

First, while the White House, maybe unwisely, attempted to frame the withdrawal as making good on a campaign pledge, the reality is that it was merely abiding by the 2008 Security Agreement between the Bush Administration and the government of Iraq.  That agreement mandates withdrawal by the end of this year.  In other words, while you would never know it by listening to Romney or President Obama, the current administration is! simply carrying out the withdrawal deadline imposed by President Bush.

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