But here, let's go to Boca Raton, Florida, October 22nd, 2012, the third presidential debate between Obama and Mitt Romney.
ROMNEY: You and I agreed, I believe, that there should have been a Status of Forces Agreement.
OBAMA: That's not true!
ROMNEY: Oh, you didn't? You didn't want a Status of Forces Agreement?
OBAMA: No. What I -- what I would not have done is left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down!
"Obama: Pulling All Troops Out of Iraq was Not My Decision." (snorts) He got elected promising to do it; he got reelected affirming that he did it. He has sought credit for this every which way but Sunday, and now all of a sudden it's Bush's problem, and he also says, well, he couldn't get the Iraqis to guarantee security for American troops. That's what he just told Romney.
He said, "What I would not have done is left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down. That certainly would not help us in the Middle East." Romney said, "You and I agreed there should have been a Status of Forces agreement," and Obama did say that but he couldn't let Romney get away with it because that would have meant Obama agreeing with some troops staying, and Obama's base would not tolerate even a uniform staying.
So he had to tell Romney he was wrong. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I never signed on for a Status of Forces Agreement! Never, never, never! I would never leave 10,000 troops! Never." New York Times, June 23rd this year. "Diplomatic Note Promises Immunity From Iraqi Law for US Advisory Troops." Now, what this Status of Forces Agreement really is...
What Obama's trying to say is, "I'm not gonna leave American troops over there if they aren't granted immunity from Iraqi law." Meaning: "I don't want our troops charged with war crimes or whatever trumped-up phoniness unless the Iraqis give us immunity in the status of forces agreement." Well, the New York Times ran a story a in June that says the Iraqis did indeed promise immunity; Obama rejected it.
The reason is: Obama didn't want Bush's war in Iraq to have resulted in a stable democracy there.
This wasn't supposed to happen, either, but Iraq was never supposed to be secure. That's why Obama didn't want to leave any troops there, so he used this phony Status of Forces Agreement. But the Iraqis did promise immunity, and the New York Times reported that in June of this year. Obama's just making it up or lying about it. I don't know how to say this. But he didn't want a stable Iraq because he couldn't afford for anything Bush did to look like it worked.
