President Obama's Latest Iraq Speech Matters Little to Americans

President Obama is reportedly chagrined that he's not getting more credit and goodwill for ending the combat phase of the Iraq War.

As a result, he delivering an Oval Office speech to the nation on August 31, 2010 presumably to make sure we've all taken notice that he kept this particular campaign promise.

While President Obama's back-patting remarks on Iraq will likely be inspiring, as are most of his speeches, words alone won't bring him the droves of public accolades that he's craving, for several reasons:

• First, President Obama has left 49,700 U.S. troops in Iraq. If combat is definitively over, why do almost 50,000 U.S. soldiers remain in Iraq? Why not just 10,000? Or 20,000?

  This week, The Economist reports the obvious but unspoken, "... the country's new democracy remains chronically insecure, which is one reason why some 50,000 American 'support' troops are to stay behind to shore it up."

• The American public has been repeatedly lied to about U.S. occupation of Iraq. In addition, President Obama has been less than scrupulously forthright on many vital issues since he took office.

  Americans long ago gave up believing President Bush regarding the Iraq War, and frankly, trusting President Obama to carry out promises made in his many uplifting speeches is getting to be a stretch, too, even for progressive Democrats.

  Americans are no longer naive about U.S. misadventures in Iraq. We'll believe genuine withdrawal when we actually see it... not when a President proclaims "Mission Accomplished" or makes pretty pronouncements from the Oval Office.

The jubilation that President Obama believes that Americans should feel over his drawdown to 49,700 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq is further tamped down by realization that every taxpayer dollar spent in Iraq is a dollar not spent here in our own ailing country.

I confess... I felt incensed by The Economist's statement this week in its article "After Iraq":

"... it is a credit to Mr Obama that he has resisted the temptation to follow the popular mood and turn his focus entirely inward. In his gut, Mr Obama may well care more about nation-building at home than he does about exercising superpower abroad. But if so it is an instinct he has curbed."

That, Mr. President, is precisely why most of us don't give much of damn about your supposed withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to a mere 50,000:

• because 50,000 will remain in Iraq to still exercise power, as you see fit;
• because if the 50,000 aren't fighting in Iraq, they'll be nation-building in Iraq;
• because the 50,000 will be rebuilding schools, roads, living areas, public utilities and the like in Iraq, rather than here in the United States.
• because American schools, roads, living areas the like are crumbling here at home, but you choose to use our taxpayers funds to, instead, rebuild Iraq

Bottom line, Mr. President: we're not sure we can believe your stated intentions on Iraq. And to put it bluntly, we have no idea what's in it for us to keep 50,000 troops stationed in Iraq for another 18 months.... or for another week.

For a summary of the damage, mismanagement and fraud to date, read Iraq War Results & Statistics at August 23, 2010.

Also make time to read Private Contractors in Iraq Still Double Overall Troop Presence by Pierre Tristam, About.com's Guide to Middle East Issues.