VP Biden knocks down yet another excuse to remain militarily engaged in Iraq

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President Obama has made what I'd term a political decision to withdraw from Iraq. His decision isn't based on the past excuses Bush used to keep our troops bogged down there; like the need for Iraqis to form some perfect government, or the need to defend against the seemingly endless random attacks and bombings by the myriad of insurgent groups there.

Time and time again in the past year, there have been political setbacks and security concerns which Bush intended in his SOFA to allow the President to linger longer in Iraq to, as he insisted, ensure that whatever 'progress' he believed Iraq had made wouldn't be undone. But, instead of using the incidents and events as a pretext to remain, the President dispatched VP Biden to Iraq as his point man to make it clear to the Iraqis that they would have to assume responsibility for these setbacks and disturbances themselves.

Neither the continuing violent acts in Iraq, nor the shaky condition of the U.S. enabled regime have convinced Pres. Obama that it's wise or prudent to keep our forces in place until Iraq is incident-free or secure in their government. He's made the determination that our troops have spent enough time propping up the regime and he's following through on his plan to bring 'all troops out of Iraq by 2011'.

One of the hooks Bush used to keep us militarily engaged in Iraq to the hilt was the prospect that our nemesis, Iran, was gaining undue influence and was interfering in Iraq's political affairs and even aiding the violent insurgencies. Even the President's own commanders and Pentagon leadership was still complaining about Iran as if there was some need for the U.S. to address that influence militarily with our forces.

VP Biden put that notion to rest this week in a speech to veterans:

"Many people point to the Iranian influence in Iraq but I believe this to be exaggerated," he said. " The Iranian government spent over $100 million dollars to try to sway the national elections but Iran failed. The Iraqi people voted for their desired candidate, not who the Iranians wanted them to vote for."

Bravo to VP Biden for the manner in which he is managing this occupation to a close. Bravo to President Obama who has been steadfast in his determination to end the occupation once and for all.

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