Via Big Tent Democrat, House Republican leader and Speaker Wannabe John Boehner apparently has no qualms about owning the disaster in Iraq.
“Some leaders who opposed, criticized, and fought tooth-and-nail to stop the surge strategy now proudly claim credit for the results,” Mr. Boehner’s speech said.
If Boehner wants credit for the war, let him have it. President Obama wants credit for transitioning out of the war, not for the war itself. Boehner might not understand the difference, but Obama's result is about ending the war, while Boehner's is about the war. Apparently, Boehner is proud of results such as this:
As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds has been wasted on these projects — more than 10 percent of the $53.7 billion the US has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.
That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects.
And this:
The effort to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists has been slowed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the head of U.S. special forces.
Fewer elite commandos are available for the hunt and their expertise has been degraded by “the decreased level of training,” Admiral Eric Olson said. They now have only a “limited” capability for this mission, he said.
Meanwhile, the threat of extremists acquiring and using chemical, biological or nuclear arms “is greater now than at any other time in history,” Olson told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a written response to a question posed by lawmakers after a hearing March 16 on his command’s budget.
And this:
The Defense Department is unable to properly account for $8.7 billion out of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil revenue entrusted to it between 2004 and 2007, according to a newly released audit that underscores a pattern of poor record-keeping during the war.
Of that amount, the military failed to provide any records at all for $2.6 billion in purported reconstruction expenditure, says the report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which is responsible for monitoring U.S. spending in Iraq. The rest of the money was not properly deposited in special accounts as required under Treasury Department rules, making it difficult to trace how it was spent.
And this:
Gates said conditions in Iraq are much better, however, as the United States shifts to an advisory role seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.
"I am not saying all is, or necessarily will be, well in Iraq," Gates said, noting the lack of a new government more than six months after national elections, and continued sectarian tension.
"This is not a time for premature victory parades or self-congratulation, even as we reflect with pride on what our troops and their Iraqi partners have accomplished," Gates told an American Legion audience here.
And this:
Coordinated attacks took place across Iraq today, - all within a two-hour period. It was, as America's top commander in Iraq today said, a bad day.
"I am fairly certain it is al Qaeda, maybe with some other groups working with them," General Ray Odierno said. "It's about the terrorists trying to make a point about the lack of a government, trying to challenge the security forces, put doubts into peoples' minds about whether they are ready or not."
And this:
The simmering warfare and political instability in Iraq are probably far from over and U.S. military involvement there could very well last years beyond the end of 2011 -- when all U.S. troops are scheduled to depart the war-torn nation, analysts who study Iraq believe.
Think-tank analysts who've written about what's next in Iraq after the U.S. combat mission formally ends on Tuesday say economic and infrastructure conditions need to be improved.
And, they envision a persistent American presence in an Iraq that remains unstable -- despite many improvements in the country's security forces and political culture and amid the troop withdrawal.
While U.S. and Iraqi officials point out that violence there has dropped, the attacks, like the wave of coordinated strikes across Iraq last week, will continue, they believe.
And this:
Iraq's two main political blocs led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and ex-premier Iyad Allawi broke off coalition talks on Monday over remarks made by Maliki on television, Allawi's group said.
"We ceased negotiations with (Maliki's) State of Law," spokeswoman Maysoon al-Damaluji told AFP.
And this:
From the beginning of the war more than seven years ago, the state of electricity has been one of the most closely watched benchmarks of Iraq’s progress, and of the American effort to transform a dictatorship into a democracy.
And yet, as the American combat mission — Operation Iraqi Freedom, in the Pentagon’s argot — officially ends this month, Iraq’s government still struggles to provide one of the most basic services.
Not to mention this and this.
Apparently, Boehner wants us to know that this is the type of success we can expect from Republican leadership.