Mitt Romney wants America to keep fighting Bush's long war (Larry Downing/Reuters)



Mitt Romney wants America to keep fighting Bush's long war (Larry Downing/Reuters)



Mitt Romney issued a scathing rebuke Friday of President Obama's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by year's end, joining a chorus of Republicans critical of the president's decision. Romney sharply criticized the announcement this afternoon by Obama that all troops would leave Iraq by the end of 2011, fulfilling one of Obama's main promises from the 2008 campaign, that he would end the war in Iraq. “President Obama’s astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women," Romney said in a statement. "The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government."

As Steve Benen points out, it's rich to hear Mitt Romney accuse President Obama of playing politics. It's not just that Romney is just about the least principled guy you could possibly imagine running for President, it's that four years ago, he explicitly endorsed the idea of crafting a timeline for withdrawal in coordination with the Iraqi government.

And now that President Obama has done exactly that—fulfilling one of the very first commitments he made as a presidential candidate—Mitt Romney suddenly changes his position and says that military commanders should be given carte blanche without regard for what Iraq itself wants. And he says this without even knowing what the military commanders think!

But the most important fact to keep in mind is that before the first shot was fired, Barack Obama stuck his neck out and said that going to war with Iraq was the wrong thing to do. He called it a dumb idea. He didn't pussyfoot around and play games and flip-flop and change positions like Mitt Romney. He took a position—and it was the right position.