The Real Bogus Analysis on Iraq

What Obama leaves behind typically is found in stables.

From the incomparable Michael Ramirez

Those Who Fail To Learn From History Get Barack Obama

I heard that CNN put up a story about 200 kids with cancer, turned away from the National Institute of Health because of the government shutdown. What wasn't mentioned, was that Republicans had specifically offered to fund NIH in a separate bill, which the Democrats rejected. (see video below)

And as I was angered over the thought of Obama and the Left playing politics with the lives of sick kids, I got a small sense of déjà vu...when was the last time something like this had happened? And it came to me...Saddam Hussein.


Saddam Hussein Obama
Let's take a little trip in the Way Back machine. Uncle Saddam had millions to build palaces while he told the world that the US oil embargo was preventing him from buying food and medicine, and that it was our fault that children were sick and dying. Filmmakers and reporters were invited to tour hospitals (accompanied by a government "Minder", to accompany them, and intimidate whomever was interviewed or filmed.) After the invasion, we found medicine moldering in barracks of his Republican guard. Baby formula provided to Iraq under the Food for Oil program was found throughout the gulf after it had been resold for cash. Illegal oil sales reaped millions more for Saddam, which he refused to use to feed and care for his own children, when it was in his power to do so, because children were nothing but political pawns to Uncle Saddam. Means to an end, to tug on the heartstrings of the West, so that they would lift the sanctions and he could continue to increase his wealth and power unabated.

I approached John about doing the caricature of Obama as Saddam with some trepidation. In most cases, this would be hyperbole. Sadly, here, it is not. There is a direct analogy between the actions of Uncle Saddam and Barry Hussein.

In the case of cancer, the earlier it can be diagnosed and treated, the better the outcome. By turning down the offer to take kids dying with cancer off the table in the fight over Obamacare is heartless. And it is spawned in the heart of the Democrat party.

On the evening news last night, there was a story of a local woman, up in the Auburn, California area, whose cancer treatments were being put on hold because of the government shutdown. My heart went out to her. Then, I thought of the misery that Obamacare style healthcare causes all by itself. I recently did a post on the healthcare system in Canada, "Obamacare Previewed in the Frozen North", which noted that under "free" government health care, there is a nine month waiting period for an MRI scan. Additionally, there was ire and calls to make it illegal to purchase the services privately.

Now let's take our sick Auburn lady and those 200 sick children and lets move them across the northern border (or into a similar healthcare system): Would they even have been diagnosed yet, much less their treatment started? As bad as it is (and avoidable) for their treatment to be delayed even for a few days or weeks while our government dithers, the real question is, would Obamacare delay those treatments for months, with no other recourse?

Democrats say they won't approve parts of the budget "piecemeal"...except, they already have! By passing a special provision, that the president has bragged about signing, to make sure that our servicemen get paid on time, Obama tacitly acknowledges that a piecemeal approach can be desirable when taken on matters of urgency.

Obama and Reid, and those who support them, are willing to let children and adults alike be denied cancer treatments in order to bolster the "optic" that Republicans are mean spirited and uncaring. It is partisan politics, pure and simple, and despite what the administration and their fellow travelers are trying to sell, it is Obama who is unwilling to ease the suffering of sick children...just like the other Hussein.

Original art work created for Proof Positive by John Cox


Cross posted at LCR

The "Axis of Evil" Revisited

Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for January 29, 2002. The State of the Union address. George W. Bush.


Remember the amount of ridicule heaped upon George W. Bush for categorizing three countries, "regimes who sponsor terror", each seeking nuclear weapons, as the "Axis of Evil"? The first was Iraq, whose leader's dreams of being a nuclear power came to an abrupt halt at the bottom of a spider hole and the end of a short rope.

The second, Iran, has test fired missiles capable of reaching Israel and much of Europe, is closer to building a nuclear device than they've ever been, plus they continue to export weapons, jihadists and unrest to neighboring countries in the region. To many people, it is not "if" Israel or the US will be forced to take out Iran's nuclear program, but "when".

And when was the last time you heard a North Korean dictator threaten to fire nuclear missiles at the United States? Yesterday? Today?? Check Drudge, I'll wait.

The price of indifference is apparently still catastrophic, Mr. President. A lesson long in the learning for some...

We return you now to the economic chaos and diplomatic incompetence that is the Obama administration. Hope you enjoyed your brief respite.

Ron Paul, Apologist for Dictators

Aside from the distraction of waiting to see of his eyebrow would slip and fall again, I listened to Chris Wallace's interview with Ron Paul on Fox News Sunday. Aside from his glossing over the isolationist charges against him by narrowly focusing only on trade, he revealed how the US would "intervene" in foreign affairs in a Ron Paul administration.

He doesn't want to use predator drones, because he claims that collateral damage "creates ten times as many enemies" for the US than they take out.

He doesn't want to use troops, but rather bring them all home. All of them.

He doesn't want to use sanctions, because, as in Iraq, "little kids couldn't get medicine".

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back the truck up! This is the same argument liberals used back when Uncle Saddam was in power, to try to get the US to lift sanctions against Iraq, and it was a lie then, too.

In those days, most of the reporting in Iraq came with a price. Aside from the cash that "journalists" would pay for access to the country, a representative of Saddam's repressive government would accompany any journalist or documentarian and monitor the answers to any questions asked. This was also a time when the rape rooms and Abu Ghraib were run by people who genuinely tortured and killed the prisoners there. So, the sampling was "skewed" to say the least. People did not tell the truth for fear of their lives. Even CNN bravely admitted (after the dictator was gone) that they had censored themselves lest Saddam proclaim them persona non grata.

But let's examine the leftie lie that Ron Paul seems to have bought into, that "little kids couldn't get medicine". Was it that there was no money to buy medicine for children? U.N. Security Council Resolution 986 allowed Iraq to sell enough oil to buy medicine. We know that Uncle Saddam, dear grandfatherly Uncle Saddam, had millions of dollars to build and furnish lavish new palaces. Millions for luxury but not one thin dime for sick children? This was a political calculation of a ruthless and heartless dictator. He used the suffering of sick children, giving copious access to allow photos and video of sick children to leave the country, to tug on the heartstrings of the West and try to manipulate the West into lifting sanctions. (Videos of suffering children may have been Iraq's second biggest export during the sanctions.)

Was it that there was no medicine to be found that could be made available to sick children? After the liberation of Iraq, there was at least one warehouse that was found stacked to the rafters with medicine set aside for Saddam's so-called Republican Guard.

From a Department of State report in 1999:

*Iraq is actually exporting food, even though it says its people are malnourished...

*Baby milk sold to Iraq through the oil-for-food program has been found in markets throughout the Gulf, demonstrating that the Iraqi regime is depriving its people of much-needed goods in order to make an illicit profit.

*Kuwaiti authorities recently seized a shipment coming out of Iraq carrying, among other items, baby powder, baby bottles, and other nursing materials for resale overseas.

Saddam Hussein’s priorities are clear. If given control of Iraq’s resources, Saddam Hussein would use them to rearm and threaten the region, not to improve the lot of the Iraqi people.

There is ample proof that lifting sanctions would offer the Iraqi people no relief from neglect at the hands of their government

*Sanctions prevent Saddam from spending money on rearmament, but do not stop him from spending money on food and medicine for Iraqis.

*Saddam’s priorities are clear: palaces for himself, prisons for his people, and weapons to destroy Iraq’s citizens and its neighbors. He has built 48 palaces for himself since the Gulf War. He would not use Iraq’s resources to improve the lives of Iraqis. Saddam Hussein would use them to rearm and threaten the region.

This ain't bean bag, Mr. Paul. If you want to strengthen your flaccid reputation on foreign policy, you might want to start by getting your facts straight. How much "medicine for little kids" could you get for the price of 47 of those 48 palaces? If children did not have medicine in Iraq, it was because a brutal dictator denied it to them. A dictator who was removed, by the way, by the use of force, by those troops you never would have sent. But, according to you, you would have traded with Saddam and would have been his "friend". Yeah. That would have worked!

You can't have it both ways, Congressman. If you want to tug on our heartstrings about little kids who can't get medicine because of our big mean sanctions, how about we mention the kids' mothers who were raped by Saddam and his sons, their fathers who were killed because they did not toe the tyrant's line, and their playmate who were gassed because they were born to the wrong parents?

The report card on Ron Paul still stands: Domestic policy A+, Foreign policy F- .

My apologies to all you Ron Paul fans out there, but cold hard facts are cold hard facts.

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Mission Accomplished in Iraq!

Have you heard President Obama on his (premature?) withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq?

“THE LONG WAR in Iraq will come to an end by the end of this year.”

Will come to an end, Mr. President?? So, if you were to withdraw all the U.S. troops from Germany by the end of the year, would you say that World War II will come to an end this year, too? Would you like to take credit for that, too?

Just checking.

Cross posted at LCR.

Obama's Speech Ending Iraqi Freedom

Or at least the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom!



Did you happen to see the President's snoozefest last night? I won't say that his delivery was emotionless or colorless, but cold fish were giving each other high fins because they were no longer the gold standard for emotionlessness.

An excerpt from the Sominex® Chronicles: (The whole speech can be found here)

Unfortunately, over the last decade, (Obamaspeak for "Bush did it") we have not done what is necessary to shore up the foundation of our own prosperity. We have spent over a trillion dollars at war, (a trillion dollars over eight years compared with a similar sum expended by the Obama administration for stimulus, er, political payoffs and pork) often financed by borrowing from overseas (As opposed to the Porkulus bill? Who financed that? The tooth fairy???). This, in turn, has short-changed investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits. For too long, we have put off tough decisions on everything from our manufacturing base to our energy policy to education reform (if it's anything like health care "reform", schools will be shuttered and education will be rationed more than it is now!) . As a result, too many middle class families find themselves working harder for less, while our nation's long-term competitiveness is put at risk. (Nothing a good tax cut couldn't cure!)

Read the whole thing if you must. There was nothing stirring or inspirational. And the accomplishments in Iraq were largely dismissed or glossed over.

Rather than waste your time with the empty rhetoric of this president, why don't you spend the time remembering when we had a real president:

Gary Sinise on the Brutality of Saddam Hussein

Pictures speak louder than words. Maybe some of these images will convince some of Uncle Saddam's apologists that they were wrong? One can only hope!

Hat tip MsUnderestimated

Wonder if Barack Will Say the Surge Worked Now?

Fewer bullet holes than Detroit from the looks of the video!

Hat tip Ace of Spades HQ

"I Gave John McCain my Purple Heart"

Marine Sgt. Jack Eubanks and friend

Byron York at NRO has the story of 22 year old Marine Sgt. Jack Eubanks, twice wounded in Iraq.

“I just gave John McCain my Purple Heart,” Marine Sgt. Jack Eubanks told me a few minutes after McCain finished a speech at a campaign rally in Woodbridge, Virginia Saturday. “I said, ‘I want to give this to you, sir, as a reminder that we want you to keep your promise to bring us home in victory and honor, so it will mean something. We fought over there, and we want it to mean something,” Eubanks continued. “We don’t want to come back and it just be all for nothing.”

Eubanks, 22 years old, knows as much about the war as anyone. On October 3, 2005, he was in a Humvee on patrol near the Syrian border when an IED went off. “I was thrown from the vehicle, took some shrapnel, landed on my spine and mashed it up a little bit,” Eubanks told me in a remarkably good-humored way. He was injured much more than just a little; it took him eleven months to recover. And then — then he volunteered to go back. In August 2007, he was hurt again in a strangely similar way. “Hit by a mortar, thrown from a vehicle — the same situation,” Eubanks told me. Now, he’s teaching recruits at Marine Corps Base Quantico — and walking with a cane.

These days, as he ponders the war and the meaning it has for him — he says he saw remarkable progress in Iraq between his 2005 and 2007 tours — Eubanks’s overwhelming fear is that it might all be for naught. “I think Obama’s just going to pull everyone home as soon as he can, despite what’s going on over there,” he told me. “I just don’t want it to turn into another Vietnam or worse where everything we fought for, and all my buddies who died over there, it was just for nothing.” Eubanks believes McCain — he called McCain “so inspiring” and said he was in awe of the senator during their brief meeting — will prevent that from happening.

York then goes on to detail a conversation with Greg Medina, the father of a Marine killed in Fallujah. Read the story. See why York concludes:

Eubanks and Greg Medina are counting on John McCain to keep his promise, should he become commander-in-chief. Some things are more important than the economy.

Cross Posted at Say Anything

US to Turn Over Control Of Anbar Province to Iraqis Next Week

In what seems like big news to me, and apparently not such a big deal to the MSM, General James Conway announced that the tenth of eighteen provinces reverts to Iraqi security next week. (Anbar is that big, honking province over on the Syrian border!)

Washington...on Wednesday, in a potent symbol of strides made in what was one of the most troublesome corners of Iraq, the U.S. Marine commandant, Gen. James Conway, said that U.S. troops will turn over control of Anbar to the Iraqi security forces sometime next week. Conway suggested that the security situation has improved so much that it is time to shift the Marines’ presence from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Could it be that good news coming out of Iraq would reflect poorly on the judgment of The One and favorably on the judgment of John McCain?

Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama: Nothing But Change!

The myriad mercurial musings of Barak Obama on what he would do in Iraq, should America be foolish enough to put this man in charge of our armed forces!



Note around 6:30, Barack's pledge to leave a "counterterrorism force to strike Al-Qaeda. Followed immediately by his denial that he ever said such a thing!

Can this country gamble on the fact that one of those positions is the one he'd actually carry out and that there's no way of knowing which one until after he's elected?

Hat tip The Corner
Cross posted at Say Anything

"Some in Washington" - New Vets for Freedom Ad

Vets for Freedom has a new ad out, a little more understated than most political or advocacy ads:



Hat tip The Corner
Cross Posted at Say Anything

US Ships 550 Metric Tons of Yellowcake From Iraq

According to the "news service that no one quotes any more", the US recently completed a secret operation to remove 550 metric tons of yellowcake from Iraq.
For those of you unconvinced of Uncle Saddam's nuclear program, that's:

Five hundred
and fifty
metric
tons.

That's nearly one and one quarter million pounds.

Of yellowcake.

Yellowcake is used in the preparation of fuel for nuclear reactors...to produce enriched uranium suitable for use in weapons and reactors.

I'm sure Uncle Saddam, in oil rich Iraq, was only going to use a million pounds of yellowcake to produce clean energy for...the children!

Hat tip LGF
Cross Posted at Say Anything