Apparently, liberals are incapable of giving a speech without bashing former President Bush. President Obama is no exception.
While addressing the nation on the military action in Libya, the President took a gratuitous jab at the former President - and attempted to rewrite history in the process.
According to a transcript at the White House website, the President said:
The task that I assigned our forces -– to protect the Libyan people from immediate danger, and to establish a no-fly zone -– carries with it a U.N. mandate and international support. It’s also what the Libyan opposition asked us to do. If we tried to overthrow Qaddafi by force, our coalition would splinter. We would likely have to put U.S. troops on the ground to accomplish that mission, or risk killing many civilians from the air. The dangers faced by our men and women in uniform would be far greater. So would the costs and our share of the responsibility for what comes next.
To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq. Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our troops and the determination of our diplomats, we are hopeful about Iraq’s future. But regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya.
The President's attack on the Iraq war trivialized the sacrifices made by the thousands who served freeing the Iraqi people from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.
Additionally, while American forces were engaged in combat operations for eight years, it was just a little under two years from the start of "shock and awe" in March 2003 to the first democratic elections in January 2005 - not eight years as the President asserted. Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003 - less than a month after "shock and awe" began.
The President also engaged in a bit of political spin regarding the cost of the war.
An article at Fox News reports that the CBO placed the cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom at $709 billion "for military and related activities, including training of Iraqi forces and diplomatic operations."
By comparison, the February 2009 stimulus bill had a projected cost of $862 billion. Fox reported:
The U.S. deficit for fiscal year 2010 is expected to be $1.3 trillion, according to CBO. That compares to a 2007 deficit of $160.7 billion and a 2008 deficit of $458.6 billion, according to data provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
The President needed to address the nation regarding his adventure in Libya, but his attack on the previous administration and attempt to spin and rewrite history is nothing less than shameful.
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