Barack Obama and Iraq War Proponents

There have been many comments made by Iraq War proponents against those who favor a U.S. troop withdrawal or redeployment from Iraq. So it comes hardly as a surprise when some war supporters criticize the Democratic Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama’s Iraq plan which would have all troops withdrawn from Iraq by March 2008 in accordance with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. 

Barack Obama and Iraq War Proponents

However, no one could have anticipated that criticism of Obama’s proposal for U.S. troop withdrawal would have come from John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister. "Howard had said that Senator Obama's call for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by March 2008 would deliver a victory for terrorists and destabilize the entire Middle East." Howard said: "If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."

Others have followed in kind with similar claims like “Iran: Praying for Obama” or by implying that he would somehow give comfort to the enemy, and other such incendiary remarks. But just how accurate are these assertions?

Here is what Obama stated in 2002 about the consequences of U.S. actions to invade Iraq: "I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars."

Senator Obama statements regarding the consequences for an American invasion of Iraq are the same difficulties the U.S. now finds it self confronted with in that part of the world. Furthermore the reasons for going to war such as the stockpiles of W.M.D., an imminent threat posed to the U.S., a reconstitution of nuclear weapon program, Iraq’s ties to al-Qaeda have been proven false.

It has already been made public through the media, US Senate briefings and the U.S. Intelligence reports that the number of terrorist acts have risen since the invasion of Iraq. The State Department previously acknowledged that the Iraq War has facilitated in fanning the flames of extremists.   By all accounts the war has strengthened Iran’s position in the Middle East and has destabilized Iraq and is endanger of threatening the broader region. Oddly enough, it is the execution of the current Iraq policy that have done all these things that supporters of the war claims an Obama’s Iraq plan would do.

Nadia Brown is a freelance writer, American poet, and author of the award-winning book, Unscrambled Eggs. She was awarded the Carolyn Howard-Johnson's Noble Prize for Literature and the Allbooks Review Editor's Choice Award for outstanding literary achievement. Previously she received the Poetry Book of Merit Award from The American Authors Association.  Her poetry and articles have appeared in national and international magazines and literary journals. She is also the founder of author-promotion.com. For more information about her, visit her website at www.nadiabrown.com