Politics

"Don't Be Confused" by Obama's Iraq Promise; it Won't Be Kept

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Over at Cato @ Liberty, David Boaz sets the wayback machine to 2008, and uncovers a campaign promise that will be broken tomorrow:

Speaking of Iraq in February 2008, candidate Barack Obama said, "I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home." The following month, under fire from Hillary Clinton, he reiterated,* "I was opposed to this war in 2002….I have been against it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8 and I will bring this war to an end in 2009. So don't be confused."

Indeed, in his famous "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow" speech on the night he clinched the Democratic nomination, he also proclaimed, "I am absolutely certain that generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that…this was the moment when we ended a war."

Now he has doubled down on the war in Afghanistan and has promised to keep the war in Iraq going for another 19 months, after which we will have 50,000 American troops in Iraq for as far as the eye can see.

Not surprising, but definitely worth pointing out, along with all the president's other broken campaign promises (including many that haven't yet shown up on this list, such as the immortal and never-to-be-realized "net spending cut").