Unlike his erstwhile replacement, outgoing Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno waited to slam the door on Barack Obama's Ameriphobic foreign policy until after he was on the right side of it:
The Army’s top officer told Fox News Tuesday it’s “frustrating” to watch the gains he helped achieve in Iraq disintegrate at the hands of the Islamic State, saying in an exit interview that the chaos now unfolding “might have been prevented” had the U.S. stayed more engaged…
“It’s frustrating to watch it,” Odierno said. “I go back to the work we did in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 and we got it to a place that was really good. Violence was low, the economy was growing, politics looked like it was heading in the right direction.”
But, of course, that's not the Iraq - strong, confident, peaceful, prosperous, and pro-U.S./pro-Western - that Barack Obama wanted to see.
Odierno said the fall of large parts of Iraq was not inevitable, reiterating concerns about the pace of the U.S. troop withdrawal there.
“If we had stayed a little more engaged, I think maybe it might have been prevented,” he said. “I’ve always believed the United States played the role of honest broker between all the groups and when we pulled ourselves out, we lost that role.”
McDonalds expander Ray Kroc used to have a saying: If you see your competitor out in the middle of a lake drowning, immediately hop into the nearest rowboat, paddle out to him, stick a hose down his throat, and turn it on full. The corollary to that adage is, "Once you have your boot on your enemy's throat, never remove it" - and, preferably, snap his neck and be done with it.
That's what the Bush Administration had accomplished in Iraq. Sure, it took much longer than it should have to adjust to the Surge strategy, but once that was done, Iraq was stabilized and ISIS's al Qaeda-In-Iraq precursor was crushed. The war that Harry (G)Reid once peremptorily declared "lost" had been won, with perseverance, patience, and the necessary application of national will and military force.
This is what Barack Obama deliberately threw away, along with all the U.S. costs and sacrifices made to achieve it, because the Iraq he wanted to see was a jihadist hellhole and vassalized thirty-first Iranian province. And he got what he wanted, because Barack Obama ALWAYS gets what he wants.
Small wonder General Odierno is so frustrated. Helpless impotence has that effect upon warriors under a traitor's command.
And it doesn't stop with Mesopotamia, either:
“I believed at the time we could [drastically cut our force size],” said Odierno. “But I said we were on the razor’s edge that we could actually do our mission at 450[,000].”
He added: “Two years ago, we didn’t think we had a problem in Europe. … [Now] Russia is reasserting themselves. We didn’t think we’d have a problem again in Iraq and ISIS has emerged.
“So, with Russia becoming more of a threat, with ISIS becoming more of a threat, in my mind, we are on a dangerous balancing act right now with capability.”
“When we go to 450, we are going to have to stop doing something,” said Odierno. [emphases added]
You know the old saying: "The worst military is the one that's second best". Or, as Odin put it to the young Thor and Loki, "A wise king never seeks war....but he must always be ready for it." Because that's the only way of deterring one's enemies from starting another one.
And then there is George Washington's wisdom (paraphrased): "The stronger a nation's military, the less likely it is that it will ever have to fight".
Yet Barack Obama has turned this wisdom on its head, weakening our defenses and capabilities and pouring napalm on multiple brewing global crises of his own instigation that are now all but guaranteed to erupt in wars waged against us on our superior enemies' terms that we will be incapable of winning, or even surviving. His Iran nuclear sellout is simply the crown jewel in that tiara of Armageddon. And all in service to his guiding ethic, the Obama Doctrine:
No wonder General Odierno is retiring. Looks like he's getting out while he still can.
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