Time to face facts.  Obama is worse than Bush.  Christi Parsons of the Chicago Tribune asked Obama if he still thinks of Iraq as a dumb war. Obama said, “I think history will judge the original decision to go into Iraq. But what's absolutely clear is, as a consequence of the enormous sacrifices that have been made by American troops and civilians, as well as the courage of the Iraqi people, that what we have now achieved is an Iraq that is self-governing, that is inclusive, and that has enormous potential.”  One-and-a-half-million Americans served in Iraq.  More than 30,000 were wounded.  Nearly 4,500 Americans were killed.  After having clearly picked the wrong side, the losing side, Obama said, in one of history's richest ironies, “The most important lesson that we can take from you is not about military strategy. It’s a lesson about our national character. For all of the challenges that our nation faces, you remind us that there’s nothing we Americans can’t do when we stick together.”  Democrats saying Americans should 'stick together' during foreign wars and pigs are flying past the 50th floor windows of the Observer Journal offices.  Sticking Together in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008?  Sticking together to help the Iraqi democrats or Bush?  Not so much?  Could Obama be any more ironic?  Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani was asked by the BBC [VIDEO below] was the Iraq war worth it and al-Shahristani answered, "When someone from the West asks, a normal Iraqi's first reaction is always, 'No, the cost has been very high'; but, when he calms down and remembers the days of Saddam; the average Iraqi will say any price that we had to pay to get rid of Saddam was worth it."  Malik Abed, 44, a vendor at a Baghdad fish market said, "Thanks to the Americans. They took us away from Saddam Hussein, I have to say that."  Nine years ago speaking to less than 700 people gathered in Chicago’s Federal Plaza at the intersection of Dearborn and Adams, Obama called the Iraqi democrat's struggle for freedom dumb.  At Fort Bragg, N.C. Obama was cheered by soldiers and covered live by the news networks.  Obama proclaimed “this moment of success” – the end of the Iraq war.  What a fraud.  When speaking to the far-Left Obama said over and over, “On the most important national security question since the Cold War.  I am the only candidate who opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning.  I don’t oppose all wars.  What I am opposed to is a dumb war.”  What a bigot; basically, calling support for the Iraqi democrats and; therefore, all Iraqi democrats dumb.  The Left abdicated their historic tendencies and responsibilities to promote democracy, failing to support the Iraqi democrats when the chips were down.  American progressives still think the Iraqi democrats are inherently incapable and must be abandoned.  Progressives bombing Libya destroyed the Left's argument that 'peaceful movements' play the central role in bringing about democratic change.  Progressive bombs away over Libya, no problem.  Iraq and Libya have proven Obama and all progressives fraudulent.  American progressives still refuse to give any weight to the Iraqi democrat's central argument that one death, Saddam's death, made the Iraq war worth it.  Drenched in hypocrisy, Obama welcomed home from Iraq the last American troops saying verbatim, “As your commander in chief, I can tell you that it will, indeed, be part of history. Those last American troops will move south on desert sands. And then they will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high. One of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of the American military will come to an end. Iraq’s future will be in the hands of its people. America’s war in Iraq will be over.”  Translation from Liberal into English, Obama claimed victory.  On the plus side, Obama avoided Bush's moronic “Mission Accomplished” banner.  "After a lot of blood spilled by Iraqis and Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real," Leon Panetta said.  Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said Iraqis were glad the US troops were leaving.  "They have been difficult years," he told the BBC.  "We have had some successes together. We had some failures. We have some mishaps.  I think we are all happy that the American soldiers are returning home safely to their families and we are also confident that the Iraqi people and their armed forces, police, are in a position now to take care of their own security."  Some 4,500 US soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis died in the war.  Four key points are always unmentioned by the far-left press: 1) less than 13% of Iraqi deaths were directly caused by Americans.  87% of all deaths were Iraqi killing Iraqi. 2) the Purple Finger Strategy turned Iraq into an open democracy, laying the foundation for the Arab Spring democratic revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. 3) The training and equipping of Iraq's soldiers and police have delivered results because the Iraqi police and soldiers are tough and self-reliant. 4) Iraqi politicians see themselves as a bridge between the US and Iran, not an Iranian subsidiary.  For example, Michael McClellan, the spokesman for the US embassy in Baghdad, says: "We are not being pushed out and I don't think it's at the behest of Iran. Since 2003, our objective here has been to have an Iraq that is sovereign, stable and self-reliant.  They are sovereign because they did make their own decision. We did not just come back at them and say: 'Sorry but we're going to keep our troops here anyway.'"  The frauds in the White House are deflecting all attempts to remind anyone of Obama's far-left rhetoric from 2002.  Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “History will judge whether the war was worth it,” he said, adding, “The president’s position has not changed, which is that he did not support getting into this war, did not support the way that the previous administration led us to war in Iraq. And he made that clear during the campaign and that’s not a position that’s changed.” 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/14/us-iraq-withdrawal-reactions-idUSTRE7BD2IU20111214

http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/fort-bragg-evokes-memories-of-another-obama-war-speech-20111214