Obama wins the presidency and runs in four years on his record in Iraq.

 

The following is taken from this August 2012 democratic nomination acceptance speech at the DNC national convention. For security reasons, the location of the convention was not divulged until a week before it opened at the airport Holiday Inn in Boise, Idaho. 

 

"When I took office our troop level in Iraq was 170,000 with great uncertainty that our continued and oppressive presence would not ignite another round of violence, even higher levels of American casualties and further huge drains on our national treasure. My first act as president was to authorize the reduction of our troop levels to 120,000. I was met with resistance from the military and the conservative media, but my action demonstrated to the peoples of Iraq and our adversaries, that the United States was committed to returning Iraq to the Iraqis. 

 

At the end of my second year in office, our troop levels were reduced to 75,000, with levels of violence that were rising ? were messy ? but were not destabilizing. My conversations with Iran brought them into Iraq to help al-Sadr maintain control in the Shia eastern regions of Iraq and Baghdad. 

 

Year three saw further troop reductions to 50,000 with some positive and negative actions in Iraq. Sporadic outbreaks of violence occurred, but were the normal reaction to a country that had suffered eight years of war from the time of the United States invasion. Iraqi government has not lived up to the unreasonable high ideals of the previous administration, but we must understand that Iraq is for Iraqis. Of growing concern from this administration is the Iraqi army trained by Americans has become brutal in suppressing dissent and expression of various groups. Future historians may note that we merely trained a more efficient killing machine than the one we overthrew. My policy toward Iraq will now focus on monitoring the excesses of the Iraqi army and police forces by enlisting the UN to send in teams to monitor complaints. It is time for the international community to send observers and offer comments and feedback to the Iraqi leadership and to the rest of the world.

 

Year four gives us a springboard to the future, with modest troop levels of 25,000, and low casualty rate, more reductions possible in my second term as our great nightmare is drawing to a close. I have kept my pledge to the American people to reduce troop levels and end this unnecessary war. 

 

Only now as troop levels and expenses in Iraq have been curtailed, can we turn to the issue of our nagging four year recession. Our spending in Iraq has kept us from addressing our many concerns for our less fortunate citizens, and others. Tax increases on the upper middle class and corporations have had the desired impact of shifting the tax burden away from the middle class. Unfortunately, corporations have continued, and accelerated their outsourcing of jobs. Our current unemployment rate of 10.2% can be laid directly at the feet of those would abandon America to chase profits where foreign workers can be exploited. As our population ages we have seen medical care costs continue to shoot up and all health costs continue to rise. 

 

We are faced with a crisis in medical care coverage. It is unfortunate that the bold plan put forth and promoted by former Vice President Hillary Clinton was brought down by the zealous efforts of our opponents and the setback concerning former President Clinton's alleged dealings in the medical care for Anwar oil legislation ? that is still under investigation and prohibits me from further comment.

 

As I pledged in 2008, our war in Iraq is behind us and it is now time, with your help, support, funds, and vote to move forward to solve the many other problems that our opponents have brought down upon us."

 

 

 

 

As has been discussed elsewhere on StrategyPage, there are certainly other metrics besides casualty levels.  To give an example, during the Battle of the Bulge the US suffered a spike in casualties (among the heaviest casualties of the war).  Yet this also was a decisive victory that ultimately ended Nazi Germany's ability to make war.

 

Casualties taken by themselves are not a very good measure.  But taken in context can suggest trends.  For example, casualties in the last two months were down substantially over the previous year, BUT this occurred during major offensives against enemy strongholds in both Basra and Baghdad.  The fact that casualties were relatively low at a time they should have been high suggests the bad guys are losing their ability to inflict casualties.