Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama kept a promise but took a risk in boldly declaring an end to 7 1/2 years of war in Iraq and asserting that America had turned the page on the costly, divisive conflict.
In relatively brief but politically freighted remarks from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, Obama lavished praise on America's military men and women, saying they had "stared into the darkest of human creations - war - and helped the Iraqi people seek the light of peace."
Obama's second address to the nation shifted quickly, however, to politics, with a reminder of his erstwhile opposition to the deeply unpopular war, a position that - in part - fueled his successful run for the White House.
Now, 19 months in office and with the U.S. economy in deep malaise, Obama, who as a candidate opposed the war, blamed President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq for having "shortchanged investments in our own people and contributed to record deficits."
He spoke of a trillion borrowed dollars spent on war over the past decade and asserted that the Bush administration had turned its back on American middle-class families who "find themselves working harder for less, while our nation's long-term competitiveness is put at risk."
Those remarks - undoubtedly born out of a bruising congressional election season - reflect fears that his fellow Democrats could lose their majority hold on the House and, perhaps, the Senate.
Beyond the politics, however, the U.S. troop withdrawal coincides with a continuing political stalemate in Iraq, with no assurance the government there can hold together in the face of a diminished but still dangerous Sunni Muslim insurgency.
In fact, six months after national elections, politicians in Baghdad still have not been able to form a new government. While the administration claims it expected that kind of delay, Obama's words Tuesday night voiced an underlying anxiety that Iraq still could fall backward into the kind of sectarian violence that ravaged the country in 2006 and 2007.
"Tonight, I encourage Iraq's leaders to move forward with a sense of urgency," Obama said, "to form an inclusive government that is just, representative and accountable to the Iraqi people.
Tuesday night may prove to have been a warm-up for a far more momentous - and perhaps far more difficult - speech 12 months hence.
Source: Associated Press
Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and Illustrator from New Jersey. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Follow him on Facebook.