When the US pulled all combat troops out of Iraq Wednesday, conservatives were angrily surprised that Obama had kept a promise he made. Many, however, started voicing a protest: “All Obama did was keep Bush’s promise. He had no choice.”
Or this fallacy, via Twitter: “Glad to see Obama takes credit for the agreement reached, under BUSH, to pull out of Iraq. #tcot”
Or this “poll”: “Obama Is Taking Credit Or Iraq Winding Down. Who Should Get Credit; Obama Or Bush?” (50% give Bush credit, 25% give Obama credit. For conservatives, that’s pretty generous!)
Well, guess what? They’re wrong.
As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow explained last night, the agreement between George W. Bush and Iraq was that the US would be out of Iraq by the end of next year. The promise Barack Obama made was that all combat troops would be out of Iraq by the end of August. He fulfilled this promise, weeks early.
Say what you want about the remaining 50,000+ troops still in Iraq; they technically are not combat forces.
Score one for Obama.
And score one more point on the conservative’s ignorance scale.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
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