On June 16, Senator John McCain said that Barack Obama was “directly responsible” for the actions of Omar Mateen in Orlando, Florida, early Sunday morning June 12, when he killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a shooting rampage at Pulse, a very popular LGBT night club.
McCain claimed that President Obama withdrew troops from Iraq and that that action triggered a series of events leading to the formation of ISIS. McCain blames ISIS for the actions of a very disturbed person, Mateen, who claimed to have been inspired by Hezbollah and Al Quaeda, as well as ISIS.
McCain is completely wrong to blame the President for Mateen’s actions. In fact, the Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement signed by George W. Bush required/specified the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011.
On 16 November 2008, Iraq’s Cabinet approved the agreements; on 27 November, the Iraqi Parliament ratified them; on December 4, Iraq’s presidential council approved the security pacts
That agreement established that US combat forces would leave Iraq cities by June 30, 2009, and all US combat forces would be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. The pact specified criminal charges for holding prisoners over 24 hours, and required a warrant for searches of homes and buildings in related to combat. Contractors working for US forces would have been subject to Iraqi criminal law — a major problem for the US — while contractors working for the State Department and other US agencies would keep their immunity.
When the United States tried to renegotiate the agreement and keep troops in significant numbers in Iraq, Iraq was unwilling to give up the requirements that the United States was not willing to abide by. Quite simply, the leader of Iraq, Al-Maliki, did not want United States troops in Iraq — this is why he insisted on conditions that made keeping a US troop presence impossible.
Most important — this is the reason why McCain’s current criticism of President Obama is so appallingly absurd and deeply hypocritical:
In August 2010, when the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division was leaving Iraq, McCain famously tweeted: “Last American combat troops leave Iraq. I think President George W. Bush deserves some credit for victory.”
In light of McCain’s opinion, expressed in the August 2010 tweet when the last troops were leaving Iraq, he knows better than to speak so falsely now about a mass shooting perpetrated by someone with very evil motivation to kill gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Orlando.