John Boehner Hits Obama, Reid, Pelosi For Opposing Iraq Surge (VIDEO)

John Boehner released a gloating Iraq war video in advance of President Obama's Oval Office address on the drawdown of combat troops in Iraq.

The youngest U.S. soldiers in Iraq today were ten or eleven years old when the Bush administration told the country that the invasion, launched on false premises, would be a "cakewalk," yet today the GOP considers itself to have been on the right side of history.

The video begins with Boehner, the House Minority Leader, asking the question: "Who doesn't believe that if we withdraw and leave that chaos in the Middle East that the terrorists won't follow us here to the United States?"

But chaos abounds. On Wednesday, at least 50 people were killed across Iraq in coordinated shootings, car bombing and IED attacks. "The situation doesn't let us live our lives here," Mahmoud Hussein, 26, told a reporter. "No water, no electricity, no security. Every day it gets worse."

The country is in political chaos, too. Six months after elections, competing factions have been unable to form a government, leaving a power vacuum.

By Boehner's reasoning, then, the terrorists in Iraq will be following combat troops home to the United States any day.

In reality, violence declined in Iraq largely due to a complex interplay of forces. Most strategists point to the Sunni Awakening, the decision by a large swath of insurgents to turn against Al Qaeda and fight on the side of the United States, as the turning point in the war, yet it is given only passing mention in Boehner's video. The Awakening came months before the surge, but the prospect of the troop escalation could have emboldened the Sunnis.

Boehner, however, prefers a simpler narrative, one in which he and his colleagues were right and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid and then-Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden were wrong. The video, which was provided to HuffPost by Boehner's office, repeatedly shows the three leaders declaring the war to be lost or the surge to be a failure.

WATCH:

Comments

[coco123]

12:30 AM on 09/09/2010

Narcissists are beyond reach. Agenda is undiluted self interest. No character, no integrity, entitled
without appropriate accomplishment etc. etc. etc.. To hell with country, patriotism, electorate, I am entitled. I may spend my time on the golf course, warming the bar stools, and promoting self. You out there may have to do the daily grind, but not me, for I AM ENTITLED.
My friends, let's remember in November!

[vetxcl]

03:59 PM on 08/29/2010

it's an election year. bonehead is blowing off steam in the cause of his party. (or maybe he's still hung over from the one he had last night, or the night before, or..) you decide.

[vetxcl]

03:53 PM on 08/29/2010

everthing about rep. bonehead is simple: his thinking, his rhetoric, his sense of history, and even his sense of timing. way to bring up an obscure, factoid this late in the game bonkers! have another drink, on the house. (get it?, he's a rep. from the house, so... never mind.)

[RTWINGER]

01:53 PM on 08/29/2010

An early congratulations to the next House Majority Leader John Boehner...
Time to drain the swamp John :)

[DeeFromTheD]

07:23 PM on 08/29/2010

Starting with him. You and the rest of the repulsives know this invasion was unjust and let's see if they do any investigations, only if they get the House. Hypocrites!

[SparkyDash]

03:43 AM on 08/30/2010

So you like to hear Boehners' lies and hypocrisy, yes? Too bad he won't get the job.

[TheCommons]

01:16 PM on 08/29/2010

Hey John, what were we doing in Iraq in the first place? going forward, we know what we can count on from you. If Iraq doesn't fall apart in the next few years, I know you will credit Bush. If it does fall apart or becomes a another anti-western, anti-modern Islamic "republic", I'm confident you will blame Obama.

[chancetay]

10:23 AM on 08/29/2010

Well, why doesn't he get his orange behind over there and help if that is what he believes. I would like to see him in action. He needs to do something besides drinking and getting orange.

[Jack Crack]

01:05 AM on 08/29/2010

He is so bitter, ever since he was rejected at his audition for blue man group.........

[Silent Edge]

05:14 AM on 08/29/2010

I heard he was trying to start his own group, except changing the color to orange.

[ArbitorA]

11:10 PM on 08/28/2010

Boehner, his Republican House Republicans, and the hosts of Faux lack integrity, honestly, or just basic decency. There is a total lack of character on the Right. These howlers of "support the troops" complained vigorously that criticizing Bush cut into the morale of the troops in Iraq.

Nothing is stopping the endless criticism of the current President while our troops are in harms way -- now is there?

Yet for all the accolades they want to heap upon themselves for the sacrifices of others, not a one of them was at the boarder to greet or thank any combat troops as they crossed out of Iraq into Kuwait. Why not? It's the August recess. No need to stay in Washington obstructing America.

Faux devoted less than a minute total during news breaks on Sean Hannityt. Bill O'Reilly talked about the Islamic cultural center for over 8 minutes in a stretch. No coverage whatsoever in the "news" segments.

For all the posturing and pontificating, it is the actions of these creeps that truly tells the story.

[missouriwatcher]

09:59 PM on 08/28/2010

This clown of a "representative" is the stereotype politician; unfortunately, he takes himself seriously. Definitely one joker that needs to be out of work asap.

[feed the enemy]

09:21 PM on 08/28/2010

Agent Orange speaks his wisdom again. Thanks for taking time off from your golf game, JB.

[unite4change]

08:42 PM on 08/28/2010

Does this sound familiar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23X14HS4gLk

[margoharris]

08:20 PM on 08/28/2010

"Republicans are the party that says that government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."----- PJ O'Rourke

[rgateman]

07:46 PM on 08/28/2010

Hey bohner, Merika has not won a war in over 65 years. maybe you can gets one of yer staffs to look it up on the internets tubes with the googles for ya. The 2 wars we are fightin in now were lost years ago also too. there are some other 'wars we've already lost also too, drugs, poverty, hunger and immigration. Are you like out too late drinkin every night to get up in time to learn ANYTHING BEFORE OR DURING WORK?

[cbwHouston]

05:33 PM on 08/28/2010

My core hypothesis: Republican hypocrisy... not just on Iraq, but deficit-spending, Bush tax-cuts for the wealthy, Islamophobia, and a host of other lies meant to distort the truth for political advantage. Partisanship-a fantasy to Republicans, has drained invaluable political capital from President Obama's agenda.

In short, perhaps it would be wish if Rep. John Boehner... clearly averse to Huff-Post criticism, not return to congress-get out of politics altogether, and devote another "19-months" at that task he knows best: "Teeing-off" at either of his all-male golf courses at tax-payer and lobbyist expense.

Justin Coussoule... Democrat candidate campaigning to unseat Rep. Boehner in congress, said of his fellow Ohio representative: "John Boehner is the most "COIN-OPERATED" politician in Washington" on the Ed Show Friday."

Of those Democrats John Boehners's "very real" partisan-video in poor taste excoriates... President Obama, Vice President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid, they will continue doing that which they were elected to do:

Government officials actually working to resolve the the foreign-affairs, economic...employment, crises besetting our America. Now...how's that for "fake" partisanship...my new friend!

As for as Justin Coussoule defeating Rep. John Boehner in November... indeed-please: "Victory at all cost!"

[tony wise]

05:43 PM on 08/28/2010

continue doing that which they were elected to do:

warmonger and drive our economy further into a ditch?

[cbwHouston]

08:32 PM on 08/28/2010

tony west:

No! President Obama "inherited" both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars-combined. This yet another misadventure-gone-wrong at the American tax-payers expense...dreadfully in this instance a "Bi-Partisan" boondoggle.

Perhaps following 9/11... ideologically, Bush-Cheney and Republicans' intentions were-while in minimal respects reactive, at it core questionable. But this "$1.7-trillion dollar" American military-industrial-complex windfall... a budgetary and diplomatic travesty, will historically far exceed the events which transpired at either Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo prisons.

Alas... now, all of America is learning what the good Rev. Jesse Jackson stated ..."Our Time Has Come," in his address to The National Democratic Convention on July 17th, 1984: "You cannot hold someone in a "ditch"... unless you linger there with them... unless you linger there with them!"

[HST]

05:30 PM on 08/28/2010

The Bush administration told the public:

"President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."
http://projects.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/


Now Boehner wants to brag about all this never mind the wasted trillions of dollars or thousands of lives lost.

[tony wise]

05:44 PM on 08/28/2010

this guy likes to talk about republican lies about the war and ignore the democrat lies about the war. hes ok with a secretary of state who told what he claims were the same exact lies. wonder if he gets paid to post?

[tony wise]

05:49 PM on 08/28/2010

how many false statements about womds did democrats make ?

"Dear Mr. President:

The events of September 11 have highlighted the vulnerability of the United States to determined terrorists. As we work to clean up Afghanistan and destroy al Qaeda, it is imperative that we plan to eliminate the threat from Iraq.

This December will mark three years since United Nations inspectors last visited Iraq. There is no doubt that since that time, Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated his weapons programs.

The threat from Iraq is real, and it cannot be permanently contained. For as long as Saddam Hussein is in power in Baghdad, he will seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. We have no doubt that these deadly weapons are intended for use against the United States and its allies. Consequently, we believe we must directly confront Saddam, sooner rather than later.

Mr. President, all indications are that in the interest of our own national security, Saddam Hussein must be removed from power."

Sincerely,

Congressman Harold Ford (Democrat, Tennessee)
Senator Bob Graham (Democrat, Florida)
Congressman Tom Lantos (Democrat, California)
Senator Joseph Lieberman (Democrat, Connecticut)

Senator Sam Brownback (Republican, Kansas)
Senator Jesse Helms (Republican, North Carolina)
Congressman Henry Hyde (Republican, Illinois)
Senator Trent Lott (Republican, Mississippi)
Senator John McCain (Republican, Arizona)
Senator Richard Shelby (Republican, Alabama)

Letter to President Bush
December 5, 2001

[tony wise]

05:50 PM on 08/28/2010

"He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has refused to do. He lies and cheats; he snubs the mandate and authority of international weapons inspectors; and he games the system to keep buying time against enforcement of the just and legitimate demands of the United Nations, the Security Council, the United States and our allies. Those are simply the facts."

Congressman Henry Waxman (Democrat, California)
Addressing the US Congress
October 10, 2002