COMMENTARY | Political spin is a creature of perspective. Depending upon one's views, spin can read as reasonable and thought-provoking or misleading and disingenuous. Although Rep. Michele Bachmann, a 2012 Republican presidential hopeful, uses spin often, she is not particularly adept at it and her recent appearance on CBS' "Face The Nation" proved a case in point when she attempted to characterize President Barack Obama's announcement that American troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by year's end -- effectively ending major U. S. military involvement in Iraq -- as a failure of his foreign policy and describing the withdrawal as the U. S. being "kicked out" by liberated Iraqi ingrates.
Bachmann said the withdrawal from Iraq was just leaving neighboring Iran "waiting in the wings" to move in and dominate Iraq. "That's not good for anyone," she said. "The United States has expended 4,400 lives, over $800 billion in toil and blood and treasure. While we're on the way out, we're being kicked out by the very people that we liberated."
"Kicked out" is misleading in that Bachmann ignored the fact the U. S. is leaving by mutual agreement with the constitutionally and democratically elected government of Iraq. One isn't normally "kicked out" unless one is forcefully removed, which is not occurring. The agreement, negotiated and put into place by the Bush administration in 2007, called for an American withdrawal by December 2011 once Iraq had established a government and military force with the ability to maintain governance in the country.
In renegotiating the agreement for a continuation of America's military presence, talks concluded when the civil government refused to grant U.S. military personnel immunity from Iraqi law past the end of the year, something the U.S. insisted on as a requirement for their presence.
Bachmann also noted the U. S. was "being kicked out by the very people that we liberated," which suggests the Iraqi people should in some way be grateful for an invasion and occupation that, while ridding the world of a brutal dictator, was done not at the behest of the Iraqi people or even a rebel movement but as a unilateral policy decision by the U.S. government.
Although Iraqis might feel gratitude toward the deposing of Saddam Hussein's regime and its replacement with a representative government, America's interference in Iraq's affairs has cost the nation an untold amount of treasure, hundreds of thousands of war casualties and a near decade-long disruption of their lives.
"The problem is, we've put a lot of deposit into this situation with Iraq," Bachmann argued. "To think that we are so disrespected and they have so little fear of the United States that there would be nothing that we would gain from this? That's why I've called on President Obama to return to the negotiating table."
Bachmann wants the U.S. to negotiate repayment for the war. Again, it is a war that was brought on by the insistence of the Bush administration, not at the behest of the people of Iraq. Bachmann speaks of disrespect for the U.S. but completely ignored the fact the Bush administration ignored Iraq's sovereignty by invading.
It is spin, pure and simple, given with the added usual Bachmann flare for ignoring the facts as they exist, supplanting reality with wishful thinking, unrealistic expectations and ideological blindness. Although it can be argued there are many good reasons to remain in Iraq, Bachmann presents none of those reasons -- save for the potential influence, infiltration and/or takeover of Iraq by its rogue neighbor, Iran.
Despite security fears, Iraq's government itself maintains that Iraq can handle its own security. Besides, an American withdrawal of its troops (some 45,000 at present) by December will not mean a full American disengagement. With 65,000 defense contractors in Iraq, many of whom will remain to help train Iraqi military and police and provide diplomatic security, a presence will be maintained.
"The security situation has nothing to do with the withdrawal of U.S. forces," Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters after President Obama's announcement, according to Sky News Australia. "The withdrawal will remove all justification on which al-Qaida and armed groups base their attacks."
Although simplistically optimistic and dismissive of the idea of political insurrectionists attacking the nascent government, al-Maliki addressed a limited continued American presence in his country. "The training issue will be added to contracts of purchasing weapons," he said.
The prime minister continued: "The withdrawal is a historic occasion for the Iraqi people and the armed forces because it is a commitment to withdraw all U.S. forces. Our forces have become able to control the security situation. With the withdrawal, (Iraq and the U.S.) will turn a page that was dominated by military (relations), and start a new stage built on diplomatic cooperation."
Political spin being what it is, "a commitment to withdraw all U.S. forces" became getting "kicked out" by ungrateful Iraqis who, due to such ingratitude, should subsequently have to pay for the unwanted and unsolicited invasion and occupation of the country.
Bachmann did say that given the demands of the Iraqi government, the U.S. should not have agreed to stay. Even conceding that, the congresswoman maintained the president was not respected and his foreign policy was a failure.
Still, even though Bachmann's views are somewhat unfounded in the realities of the situation, her statements aren't as bad as one comment offered on the same program by another presidential hopeful, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who put a completely unrealistic spin on America's withdrawal from Iraq. He said the pulling out the troops in Iraq meant Obama had just "lost" the Iraq War.
Oddly enough, as pointed out by Raw Story, he contradicted a senator from Pennsylvania who said in 2005 that as a democracy, Iraq could survive without an American military presence.
That senator? Rick Santorum.
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