»Ashlie Talley – atalley2@my.apsu.edu
When an idea is formed, the person responsible for the idea should get the credit. For someone else to take credit for another person’s work is immoral by our society’s standards. However, it seems to be ok by everybody’s standards President Obama gets the credit for ending the war in Iraq.
President Obama did not formulate the plan to withdraw American troops from Iraq this December.
The combined efforts of the Bush administration and the Iraqi government rendered a bilateral agreement back in 2008 that they would be gone by this point in time.
The assumption was the Iraqi army would have had copious amounts of training by this time and it would be able to defend the country.
Not only was this not President Obama’s plan, but rather, he wanted to retain a number of troops in Iraq because the aforementioned training is not expected to reach full potential until 2020 at the earliest.
The problem is, not only do the Iraqis have a bilateral agreement both President Bush and the Iraqi government signed, but the Iraqi people in general do not want the United States there.
A poll done by the State Department and acquired by the Washington Post showed 71 percent of Iraqis do not want the United States involved and are in favor of them pulling out. This being the case, Obama has no choice but to pull our troops out of the country.
Why would the leader of our country take credit for making the call to bring our troops home?
He never signed a bilateral agreement and he didn’t want to bring them home in the first place. The answer is simple — ratings.
In a poll done by The Economist, Obama’s approval rating was more than 60 percent in January-February 2009. According to Yahoo! News, a recent poll reveals that it now sits at 47 percent
People approve of him less and less the more they realize his plans are headed for a dead end.
Everything he has accomplished so far has been cosmetic issues that should not overshadow the vast number of significant issues which need immediate response. He has failed to address these issues, let alone improve them.
For instance, he spent a great deal of time repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — an achievement worthy of very high commendation of course. However, this particular problem within our system was in less need of immediate attention than our growing debt crisis, which he’s only piled onto since his election.
According to Fox News, on Feb. 14, Obama’s budget plan of 3.73 trillion for the 2012 fiscal year is 10.9 percent of the GDP, and is the highest it has been since World War II.
His proposal is also expected to cut $1.1 trillion out of the deficit when $4 trillion is needed to avoid financial breakdown. Obama raised the debt ceiling three times this year.
To top this off, the Bureau of Labor Statistics states our unemployment rates are up to nine percent from the four percent they were in January. This does not bode well for Obama since we are nearing a presidential election.
Bringing the troops home is simply another proverbial paint stroke over the rusty undersurface, and he is by no means entitled to it.
He will take credit for it as long as it will boost his ratings in the next election to help him get the vote. Give credit where credit is due, not where it will serve one most. TAS
