Saying Goodbye To His Good Friend Iraq

Goodbye old friend. Been a fun 6 years together, but this is my last visit. No way you will see my ass here ever again. Time to let someone else clean up my mess.

With literally NOTHING left to do but watch “the store” and make sure things don’t get even worse then they already are, outgoing President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq today. The only reason I can think that he made the secret trip was to say goodbye to his best friend in the world - Iraq. Without Iraq President Bush would not have any friends at all.

U.S. President George W. Bush made an unannounced farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday, just weeks before he leaves office and bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama.

Slipping out of the White House over the weekend, Bush flew secretly to the Iraqi capital to hold talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and address a rally of U.S. troops. “Bush has come to meet Iraqi leaders, thank the troops and celebrate the new security agreement,” a White House official said. Source.

Celebrate??? Celebrate what? If the war was completely over today what would we have gained? What benefit has this entire war had for the American people? While gas prices are currently lower today there is no guarantee that they wont go right back up again. During this war they reached the highest prices in our country’s history and in some places 2-3 times higher then ever before.

During this war  the country has slipped into the worst economic situation in decades with no end in site. While not completely due to the war, it surely had something to do with it it. Hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars have been spent on a war that the majority of the country now openly thinks was a mistake. In hindsight and considering the bailouts and financial mess our economy is currently in, this money have been used INSIDE OUR BORDERS for better purposes.

The decision to land in broad daylight reflected confidence that Baghdad was more secure this time than during Bush’s last visit to the capital in 2006 when sectarian violence was raging. Source.

More secure then what??  Six years into this war OVER 4200 Americans have been killed and there are still 140,000 armed US troops in Iraq. 140,000 trained soldiers with lots of guns and weapons. Of course it is “safer”, but not more secure. We can’t even leave because we are afraid of the situation getting worse then before we arrived. Does that make any sense?

Bush leaves the White House with public approval ratings near record lows, partly due to Iraq. The war has also damaged U.S. credibility abroad.

Goodbye old friend. Thanks for all the memories.