Can't go both ways on Obama and Iraq

This is in response to one of the many rants I see here on this page about President Obama. One person wrote that Obama has taken credit for now withdrawing American troops from the very long Iraq war by the end of the month, and that Obama shouldn't take credit for that since he was against the surge and such.

First of all, let's all remember who got us into that war that we really didn't need to be in. I know it's the same old argument that we've all had since the war started, but I still believe that we did not need to invade Iraq for what we thought were possible WMDs. If people want to give credit to President Bush for setting a date on getting us out, they also have to acknowledge that the only reason we're having this conversation about withdrawals is because of who put our troops there in the first place and if it was a correct decision for the Commander in Chief to be making.

Second, the one thing that the opponents of President Obama have been saying since he took office is that "this is now Obama's war." So if this is Obama's war, then it is his decision on the withdrawal date and his decision of when to end this, and in turn credit goes to him for ending "his war." You can't have it both ways of giving him the war and not the credit. I can bet money that if there was a major tragedy today in Iraq, people would say it was Obama's fault.

And finally, I just want to remind people that if Sen. McCain had won the election for president, we wouldn't be having this discussion about withdrawing troops right now, because it wouldn't be happening for another 100 years.

Shawn Killackey

Mundelein