As Iraq predictably falls apart, Obama and his supporters quickly blame the problem on, you guessed it, former President George W. Bush.
Their premise is that if Bush had never started the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein in the first place, we wouldn’t be facing these problems now.
But Obama first became famous for a speech he gave opposing the Iraq war. In that 2002 speech he stated that invading Iraq was a “dumb war” and was not worth the sacrifice involved. OK, then. After a couple of years in office, Obama got our troops out of Iraq, as promised.
Those who opposed this move, even those who did not necessarily support Bush’s original war, objected to troop withdrawal from Iraq on the grounds that it would destabilize Iraq and make it vulnerable to Iranian-supported Islamic terrorists.
Now, several years after the troop withdrawal, that’s exactly what’s happening.
Either the problem of destabilization in Iraq by Muslim fanatics is a problem for the U.S., or it isn’t. Obama is talking and acting as if he considers it a problem. Yet the ridiculous ideas he and his supporters are floating — such as teaming up with Iran to fight these Muslim terrorists — suggest that he believes it’s right and necessary to make things stable in Iraq. If that’s the case now, why wasn’t it the case back in 2003 when he opposed the war in Iraq? And if remaining in Iraq in wasn’t necessary in 2011 when we withdrew, why do Iraq’s current troubles matter now?
Even if you believe Bush was wrong to ever take on Saddam Hussein in the first place, you can’t blame him for the problems in Iraq now. The Middle East is unstable primarily because of the people who live there who believe in killing Westerners in the name of religion. The reason so many Westerners are concerned is because of our dependence on Middle East oil. Without that oil, the economy in the United States and elsewhere would massively and quickly deteriorate, and life as we know it would for all practical purposes end. The lights would quite literally go out on much of Western civilization, and none of us can even imagine what that would look like.
Oil — the lifeblood of our civilization — is the only reason Iraq, Iran or any other Middle Eastern country matters. And it’s the only reason it should.
You cannot blame dependence on Middle East oil entirely on Obama, or on Bush either. That dependence has grown up over decades of evasion and hapless appeasement of Middle Eastern totalitarian nations that has only resulted in — well, take a look at the current state of Iran and Iraq.
You can blame a lot of our continuing dependence on Middle Eastern oil on the environmentalist movement, a movement to which virtually all of Obama’s executive orders and Environmental Protection Agency subscribe. Have you heard of the Keystone pipeline project, which would allow oil to be produced and shipped right in North America? There’s an opportunity to reduce dependence on Middle East oil.
Obama, citing his concerns for “the environment,” won’t allow it. He even claims we don’t need it. Has Obama talked to all the young or low-income people who struggle to pay for their gas at the pump? Don’t they have a right to a free and prosperous marketplace where they have an opportunity to buy what oil companies are able and willing to produce and sell?
Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, supports the Keystone pipeline, as does Bill Clinton. In one of his rare policy comments since leaving office, Bush was quoted as saying in November of last year, “Build the damn thing.”
If you want to create a situation where countries like Iran and Iraq don’t matter — or at least matter a lot less — then doesn’t it seem logical to do everything possible to allow for the increase of oil supply into the United States? Isn’t that the only way to make these countries not matter?
The problem is that politicians like Barack Obama, along with the environmentalists, don’t care for oil companies. Obama feels they make too much money, even though Obama will likely enter old age as a millionaire. Oil prices continue at record highs, and show no signs of declining. They’ll probably rise again, before long. Incredibly, we’re told that this is the fault of the oil companies.
Yes, the oil companies are greedy and want to make even more money. So what? In order to make more money, they have to invest in producing and supplying oil on North American soil. That can only increase the supply of oil, drive down the price of gas and — most important of all — make us that much less dependent on the hysterical religious tyrants who continue to rule the Middle East, regardless of what the U.S. does or does not do there militarily.
I’m no apologist for President Bush. In my view, he should have used 9/11 as an opportunity to decimate Iran, not Iraq, because the real enemy was always Muslim fanaticism. If you want to blame Bush for something, blame him for Iran’s stronger position since Iraq was invaded. But Obama cannot blame Bush for Iran, because Obama acts as if he thinks they’re the good guys.
If you’re looking for someone to blame for any perceived or actual need to once again go to war with Iraq today, then look no further than the man presently in the White House. The one who has been there for more than five years now, still blaming his predecessor for all that ails us.
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