this war is ill-advised, unwarranted at this point. we are involved in a local, civil, and regional war, where vital u.s. interests are not at stake. and at the end of the day, no matter how much we accomplish, six months a year later, you will not see massive traces of everything the united states sought to bring about. this is truly misguided, it should be wound down, not completely eliminated, be uh we should wind down our involvement there at a far faster rate than we are. i can make an argument that keeping troops in iraq would be far more in the united states interest than keeping troops in afghanistan. this is an absolute nightmare. you don t have leaders of iraq saying the things that and, of course, i m glad we re getting out of iraq. but, you know, the president campaigned in 2008 that afghanistan was the good war. he tripled the number of troops and iraq was the bad, bad war. and so he got out of there.
weakening iraq, by creating an iraq that was divided by sects, you created a situation where iran was going to be the dominant country in that part of the world. this potentially exacerbates it. because, again, you probably should ve not probably, you should have an american presence if you could. but the answer is you probably couldn t because the iraqis resisted the politics, the coalition. weapon wouldn t accept an situation where american soldiers were subject to iraqi law. the jury s out on that, certain people think yes, certain people think no. but the bottom line is the war itself set in motion historical forces in which iran was likely to gain influence, and partly because iraq itself has a plurality if not a majority of shiite. and you look at the leaders of iraq, the religious leaders of iraq from the very beginning. and they have been skeptical of the iranian experiment from 1979. sure. and from the very beginning,
farewell speech, you need your heads examined. we re not going to repeat the experiments. let s go to afghanistan, where hamid karzai responded to a question about a hypothetical conflict between pakistan and the united states. speaking with a private television station karzai said quote, this. if fighting starts between pakistan and the u.s., we are beside pakistan. wow. isn t that wait. hold on a second. hold on. wait, wait, wait isn t this the guy that the foreign policy leaders come on the show here say we re fighting and dying and we need to stay another decade for that guy? he goes on to say if pakistan is attacked are you sure this isn t a misprint? no. and if pakistan needs afghanistan s help, afghanistan will be there with you. young men and women are fighting and dying in afghanistan for a man that said he would side with pakistan in a war against the united states.
secretary clinton also reiterated america s interest in making sure democracy in iraq continues to flourish. a small number of marines is expected to remain at the u.s. embassy in iraq. and some say there ll be bases throughout the country, soft power. right. helping develop other parts of the country. you know, richard, you look at john mccain s response. i thought it was thoughtful. he obviously was critical of this administration. but at least thoughtful. and yes, we have to be concerned about iranian influence in iraq. then you look at lindsay graham talking, you know, he fumbled this, the president fumbled this, his decisions are being made out of chicago. he could ve said made out of austin, texas. because as you know, this time line is not barack obama s time line. it s george w. bush s time line. well, if you re worried about iranian influence in the region, that was actually one of the most significant historical consequences of the war itself. but removing saddam hu