Iraq milestone: Democratic Congress has funded war exactly as long as GOP Congress

As of today, the Democratic Congress has had responsibility for the Iraq war for three years and just under 10 months -- exactly as long as the Republicans controlled the purse strings on Iraq.

The Democrats' three years and 10 months goes back to Jan. 4, 2007, when Nancy Pelosi was handed the gavel as Speaker of the House.

The Democratic Congress now has spent $387 billion on the Iraq war, through the "surge" in 2007, victory in 2008, troop pullbacks in 2009 and major pull-outs in 2010. About 49,000 American GIs remain in Iraq.

Bipartisan success. In three years and 10 months (March 2003 through 2006), the Republican Congress spent $349 billion on the Iraq war.

The liberation of Iraq has been a bipartisan project.

Frank Warner

Comments

[What?]

I always have been and always will be an Iraq liberation supporter. I have thought Obama had been doing an OK job in Iraq through Bush negotiated departure of combat brigades. However since then I have had a growing level of anxiety that the Obama administration is failing to move the ball forward. The country of Iraq still has a long ways to go and I'm not sure that Obama and Clinton/State are as invested in making our project in Iraq a success as they should be. It just doesn't seem that they are doing a stellar job on the diplomatic front.

[Frank Warner]

The main thing now is to make sure Iraq's democracy grows long roots -- long enough to resist the dangerous influence of Iran's dictatorship.

It hasn't helped that the Iraq parliament has been unable to form a new government since the last election. At first, that looked like a healthy exercise, elected officials making compromises with leaders they normally would have nothing to do with. But now, some of these elected officials are making deals with Moktada al-Sadr, the murderer-tyrant in Iran.

[What?]

That's the thing. Obama is not doing enough to make sure Iraq doesn't fall into Iran's orbit.

Obama is pretty much worthless when it comes to countering Iran. But then again, I'm of the opinion that Iran should seriously be in the crosshairs of US National Military Might.