Obama Caught in Another Lie About Iraq

He just can't seem to admit he screwed it up!

Earlier there was Obama's interview on 60 Minutes where he tried to shift the blame to the Intelligence Community for ignoring the rise of ISIS despite their repeated and public warnings.

Then there is the Obama claim that it wasn't his fault we pulled all U.S. troops out of Iraq contrary to the best advice from military leaders. He blamed the Iraqis in a press conference last August. Of course he was only too proud to brag about pulling all U.S. troops out when he thought it would help him get re-elected.

But Leon Panetta, who was both Obama's Director of Central Intelligence and Secretary of Defense tells the real story in his memoirs. The Washington Post picks up the story in this article titled "Leon Panetta blows whistle on lies about Iraq:"

In clear and unequivocal terms, former Defense Secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta confirms precisely what conservative critics, lawmakers,former officials, tactical experts and military officials have said about Iraq:President Obama was advised to keep a stay-behind force and warned  about the consequences if he did not. He preferred to keep his campaign pledge to get all the troops out. The White House therefore allowed negotiations to falter for a status of forces agreement and bragged it had gotten all the troops out. Iraq has now collapsed.

Leon Panetta appears on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Nov. 12, 1995. (CBS)

In excerpts of his new book printed in TIME, he writes: “When President Obama announced the end of our combat mission in August 2010, he acknowledged that we would maintain troops for a while. Now that the deadline was upon us, however, it was clear to me — and many others — that withdrawing all our forces would endanger the fragile stability then barely holding Iraq together.” Among others, Panetta and Under Secretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy tried to convince the White House this was essential, but the White House refused to take obvious measures to maintain troops:

Flournoy argued our case, and those on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.

We debated with al-Maliki even as we debated among ourselves, with time running out. The clock wound down in December, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter continued to argue our case, extending the deadline for the Iraqis to act, hoping that we might pull out a last-minute agreement and recognizing that once our forces left, it would be essentially impossible for them to turn around and return. To my frustration, the White House coordinated the negotiations but never really led them. Officials there seemed content to endorse an agreement if State and Defense could reach one, but without the President’s active advocacy, al-Maliki was allowed to slip away. The deal never materialized. To this day, I believe that a small U.S. troop presence in Iraq could have effectively advised the Iraqi military on how to deal with al-Qaeda’s resurgence and the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country.

As he so often does, Obama put his own short term political gain ahead of national security. We're paying the price for Obama's self seeking corruption now in Iraq and Syria. Tens of thousands of Iraqis and Syrians have paid the price with their lives!