Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) yesterday on Meet the Press:
President Obama was given a war that is won in Iraq, and he’s choosing to lose the peace. That’s a desecration of the memory of 4400 Americans that gave their lives to liberate Iraq. And also, it’s over $800 billion that we have expended. I believe that Iraq should pay us back for the money that we spent. And I believe that Iraq should pay the families that lost a loved one several million dollars per life.
I’m not sure what’s more offensive here, Bachmann’s claim that by withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq (i.e. adhering to an agreement signed by the Bush administration), President Obama is betraying the blood of the martyrs, or her suggestion that Iraq should compensate the U.S. for a war that left over 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, some 300,000 maimed, and over 4 million displaced.
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“We knew at the outset that the task would be difficult. We acknowledged that publicly and privately. We knew this would be a road with many bumps— and there have been many bumps—and that continues to this day. But we are not deterred. We are, to the contrary, determined more than ever to proceed to realize the common objective, which we all share, of a Middle East that is at peace with security and prosperity for the people of Israel, for Palestinians, and for all the people in the region. We will continue our efforts in that regard, undeterred and undaunted by the difficulties, the complexities or the bumps in the road.”—George Mitchell, special envoy for Middle East peace, remarks with Prime Minister Netanyahu, September 29, 2010Middle East Analysis
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