Why Obama couldn't "Thank Bush" for Iraq

When it comes to finding the first car along the crazy train you can count on the GOP to always deliver, especially via twitter.

SarahPalinUsa Obama speech tonite may make u dig out ur old Orwell books so rewritten history can be deciphered, depending on who gets credit 4 Iraq surge

Drudge_Report FLASHBACK: Sen. Obama -- 'The Surge Will Fail'... http://drudge.tw/cZD8BP

Drudge_Report McConnell: Obama should credit Bush on Iraq... http://drudge.tw/dsWfmZ

In response to this I had a few tweets of my own.

Iraq War was Lie, sold using Fear, Forgeries and Torture - Surge was Luck @SarahPalinUSA Obama speech make u dig out ur old Orwell books

Where were the WMD'S?? Mushroom Clouds? Links to Atta? @SarahPalinUSA Obama speech tonite may make u dig out ur old Orwell books

Orwell is GOP Operation Manual, who started war again? @SarahPalinUSA Obama speech tonite may make u dig out ur old Orwell books

According to 2007 NIE the main drop in Iraq violence was due to Sunnis Awakening & Change in Congress, not Surge http://tinyurl.com/35c9joe @SarahPalinUSA

Only reason Conservs are trying to bash Obama over Surge? 1 Colorful distraction they have for every other Bush War Failure @SarahPalinUsa

"There is no doubt" Republicans will stop at nothing to trash Obama when he's simply giving us good news that even Bush agrees with #Iraq

"There is No Doubt" that @SarahPalinUSA & @Drudge_Report care more about their talking points than America, Our Troops or the #Iraq People

"There is no Doubt" that the Surge actually *Delayed* the Sunni defeat of AQI, which had started 4 months previously @SarahPalinUSA

"There is No Doubt" that all excuses for 4,000 US Troops dying in #Iraq for a pack of Lies fueled by Torture & Forgeries has finally Ended.

"The Surge" worked, eh? How's that "breathing space" for #Iraq Political Reconciliation Thangy working for ya? @SarahPalinUSA

One Last thing @SarahPalinUSA, do you still believe that Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11 as you said when Trig Track shipped out?

When Bush proposed "The Surge" it was just common sense to assume it would fail, Since Everything else that Bush done related to the War had already FAILED. Why should they get this one thing right?

Saddam Hussein did not have a stockpile of WMD's left over from the first Iraq War, those had been destroyed back in 1991 as George Bush was specifically told by Habbush the former head of Iraqi Intelligence said before we invaded. Rather than listen to the truth, Bush authorized the forging of a letter which attempted to Link Saddam Directly to al Qaeda and 9/11 to help justify his desire for the War.

The Iraqi Nuclear program was long dead, as the Niger Forgeries, the State Dept and Energy Dept told us in the original Iraq NIE when they pointed out that the Anondyzed Coating made the Aluminum Tubes improper for Uranium Enrichment, but that information was classified while Scooter Libby was given free reign to Lie to the New York Times in an effort to discredit Joe Wilson, in the process leading to the outing of his wife, who was a Covert CIA Operative working on Weapon's Proliferation in Iraq and Iran.

Talk about destroying U.S. Foreign Policy and Counter-terrorism goals.

There were no Mobile Chemical Weapons Labs as we were told by paid informant Curveball.

Lastly, Saddam Hussein and Iraqi Intelligence DID NOT train Muhammad Atta on the use of Chemical Weapons as we were told by al Libi after he'd been tortured in Egypt.

[W]hat I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002—well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion—its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida.

So furious was this effort that on one particular detainee, even when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney's office that their detainee "was compliant" (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP's office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa'ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, "revealed" such contacts. Of course later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.

Still to this day the acolytes of Dick Cheney, his daughter and people such as Marc Theissen continue to this day to expound on the value of "enhanced interrogation" when honest reporting shows that these types of techniques WERE WHY THE INTELLIGENCE WAS FLAWED and consequently helped lead to the death of over 4,000 U.S. Troops and far far more innocent Iraqis.

More importantly the Wingnuts continued crowing over the "Success of the Surge" is incorrect as I stated years ago (and linked in one of those tweets) - the Surge didn't Work, the problems in Iraq largely solved themselves.

It should be noted that violence does seem to be going down in many parts of Iraq as a result of Sunni Tribal leaders turning against and fighting al Qeada, a trend that began four months before the Surge was even announced, but what should also be noted is that the Political Reconcilliation - which was the entire POINT of the surge - hasn't even begun yet, and isn't likely to begin anytime soon.

So is the violence down because of the Surge or the Sunnis?

Or was it possibly both? Were the Sunni's emboldened by America's new found commitment to their security? Well according to the Iraq NIE for 2007, not so much.

August 24, 2007 : Yesterday, the National Intelligence Estimate reported "measurable but uneven improvements" in the security situation in Iraq. While the White House has rushed to suggest that the modest gains were the result of escalation, the improvement can more plausibly be the product of Iraqi expectations of a U.S. withdrawal.

" "[F]earing a Coalition withdrawal, some tribal elements and Sunni groups probably will continue to seek accommodation with the Coalition to strengthen themselves for a post- Coalition security environment" [...]

"The IC assesses that the emergence of ‘bottom-up’ security initiatives, principally among Sunni Arabs and focused on combating AQI, represent the best prospect for improved security over the next six to 12 months, but we judge these initiatives will only translate into widespread political accommodation and enduring stability if the Iraqi Government accepts and supports them.""

Now why would Iraqis have been anticipating a withdrawal of U.S. Troops - Four Months Before Bush initiated the Surge? Could it have been the fact that was September of 2006, just when the Democrats were poised to take control of both houses of Congress?

I think it could.

The Ill-fated, Ill-conceived and Ill-executed Iraq Conflict is now over. The Bushies should be stopping while their miles and miles behind not doubling-down on the biggest example of their MASSIVE. EPIC. FAIL. particularly at a time when the American people have much larger challenges with the economy, the recover for the Gulf and our own future in a world turning increasing Green in the months and years to come.

Vyan