Obama: Don't Betray Iraq!

I don't write about politics very much, but now it is pretty clear (barring some unforeseen upset) that Barack Obama will be the Democratic Party's nominee. If he becomes president he would be the commander in chief, which means that he can do whatever he wants with the military pretty much without congressional approval. And what he proposes to do is very troubling.

So I want to address any Obama fans out there.

The Democratic Party claims to be the party of "compassion," but Mr. Obama has indicated on his website that he'd immediately "remove one to two combat brigades each month" from Iraq, until our forces are all out, apparently regardless of whether the Iraqis are ready to stand on their own. In light of that commitment I have to ask how compassionate it is to abandon millions of Iraqis to the mercies of terrorist militias, both those home-grown in Iraq and state-sponsored terrorists from neighboring countries?

How compassionate is it to put Iraqis at the mercy of butchers who saw prisoners' heads off and then post videos of their barbarity on the Internet, or who set off bombs in marketplaces in an effort to kill as many civilians as possible?

Iraq's military is performing better and better, terrorist attacks have been way down and the country's legislature seems to be doing about as well as our own Congress, which is not saying much, but it's progress.

Yet even as the Iraqis are getting steady on their feet, your candidate wants to yank the rug out from under them, leaving nobody but a few guards for our embassy and maybe a little force somewhere in the Middle East for "targeted strikes" if al Qaeda happens to set up a base in Iraq. (What? It hasn't already?)

In other words, he wants to betray those who believed that we would help them.

He wants to desert those who worked and fought beside us! God help those Iraqi soldiers, police and politicians if we leave before they're ready.

He wants the United States to put its tail between its legs and run away, and let the families of fallen soldiers know that their sons' lives were lost for nothing, that nothing was accomplished by their sacrifice. And that on the brink of success.

This is not compassion. This is betrayal!

I know. You'll tell me too many American lives have been lost. Any lives lost is too many, but compared to most wars we've fought, 4,000 deaths in five years of war is insignificant. Many times we've lost far more than that in a single day of war. Our casualties could hardly be fewer!

I know. You'll tell me that America has committed crimes in Iraq. So the logic is that since we've committed crimes that means we should commit the additional crime of abandoning the Iraqis. Yeah, two crimes are better than one. That makes perfect sense.

I know. You'll tell me it is an "illegal" war. Well, just so we don't get stuck on the point, let's say that it is completely illegal. So, because it's illegal that means we should commit the additional crime of abandoning the Iraqis? Yeah, that makes perfect sense, too.

I'd never have thought that I'd want a politician to be a liar, but if Barack Obama is elected, I sure hope he's been lying about abandoning our friends before they are ready to stand on their own. And if he's not lying, and you vote for him, the shame of our betrayal and the blood of abandoned Iraqis will stain your hands as well.