RUSH: The New York Times has a story today that the prime minister is refusing to send any military aid to help the Iraqis. They’re being overrun there by Al-Qaeda terrorists, the Al-Qaeda branch in Iraq. And Nouri al-Maliki — do you know that he’s still alive and still running things over there? Nouri al-Maliki has been begging us to send in some air support. You know, just fly some of our fighter jets over and drop some bombs on the Iraqi Al-Qaeda insurgents. But our president is refusing even that.

Nouri al-Maliki is not asking for any troops. He’s not asking for any reentry boots on the ground. He just wants two or three fighter jets. He’d accept even a couple of Warthogs to fly. He’s not even asking for F-15s.

Obama’s refusing to do that. He says that he is not going to let the US get involved again in Iraq. Why do you think that is? Any flash-in-the-pan guesses? (interruption) The wars are over. All of the wars are over. There is no Al-Qaeda. We defeated terrorists once we killed bin Laden. But that’s not the answer. That’s not the reason why he’s not. Let me go back to me on this program two and a half years ago, almost three years ago, October 24th, 2011.

RUSH ARCHIVE: Now all of a sudden we’re gonna get out of Iraq at the end of the year. This is a campaign move, pure and simple, that runs the risk of saddling the Democrat Party with the ultimate loss of Iraq ’cause we’re not gonna have any troops there. And I guarantee you, on a scale, seesaw, whatever they have balanced it out and Obama says, “If I have any chance of being reelected, I gotta get the base back in love with me,” and that means pulling out of Iraq regardless what else what happens.

Now, don’t frown at me, Snerdley. I know you think it’s over the top to say, but it’s not at all. Obama’s base, the Michael Moore crowd would love it if we got shellacked. They would love it if we end up, quote, unquote, losing in Iraq. It would be a repudiation of Bush, they could say, “See, we never shoulda gone there in the first place, it didn’t make any difference.” Damn straight. Even after 4,500 American soldiers dead, damn straight.

We’re not dealing with a rational bunch of people on the left. We’re dealing with people who have an abject hatred for this country; who believe this country needs to be taken down a peg or two or three; who believe we shouldn’t-a gone to Iraq in the first place and we need to pay a price for going in there. And what would that be? World-wide humiliation. And Obama would benefit from it, from the base.

RUSH: So, essentially, ladies and gentlemen, two and a half years ago I predicted this. I mean, I didn’t predict the exact event. I didn’t know that the Iraqis — if I thought about it we could have all probably figured out that once we pulled out of there, this was going to happen. We just didn’t know exactly when. And that once we pulled out of there we could probably predict that the Iraqis would ask us to do something to help them. But what was easily predictable was that Obama would say “no.”

And the New York Times story today is: “Iraq Said to Seek US Strikes on Militants — As the threat from Sunni militants in western Iraq escalated last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki –” how am I pronouncing all these names? “– Nouri al-Maliki secretly asked the Obama administration to consider carrying out airstrikes against extremist staging areas, according to Iraqi and American officials. But Iraq’s appeals for a military response have so far been rebuffed by the White House, which has been reluctant to open a new chapter in a conflict that President Obama has insisted was over when the United States withdrew the last of its forces from Iraq in 2011.”

Now, I would probably — no, not probably. I would understand if a whole significant swath of the United States didn’t want to get anymore involved in Iraq. A lot of people think we shouldn’t have gone in the first place. The mission didn’t have a chance. We’re never gonna democratize the place unless we stayed forever, and we don’t want to relive this so don’t go back. Probably a lot of Americans would fall into that camp. But that’s not why the White House is rejecting these overtures. I think the reason is obvious, and I said it back in 2011.

I think this administration wants both Iraq and Afghanistan to fail as stable democracies. And if you doubt that, would you give me — I’m open to changing my mind about this — just give me any evidence to the contrary. And don’t cite Afghanistan, because everything we’re doing in Afghanistan is designed to prop up the Taliban. We just gave them five of their apparently biggest and most important freedom fighters, just released them. We’re restocking the Taliban. Obama thinks they’re a legitimate entity, that they have a right to run that country and we should negotiate with them. They’re not an enemy that needs to be defeated.

So, see, you have to understand liberals, folks, and it takes courage to understand liberals. Well, maybe not to understand, but it takes courage to admit that you understand liberals. And if you understand liberals, you understand that everything is viewed through the prism of politics. So Nouri al-Maliki asking for air support to beat back Al-Qaeda insurgents is immediately calculated as a political move by Obama and everybody on the left. It’s not about human rights. It’s not about saving the women and children. It’s not about saving a war torn country. And, sadly, it’s not about standing up for US policy.

Whether George Bush was your enemy or not politically, he was a former president and it was the policy of this country to save Iraq and potentially establish a democratic beachhead there. It was a long shot, but that was the policy of the country. And in no way does Obama share that at all. So it’s not about maintaining American consistency. It’s not about showing allies we could be counted on. It’s not about helping people in need. It’s about advancing the Democrat agenda. And this is where it takes courage to admit this, and particularly say so publicly on a microphone broadcasting to tens of millions of people, like I’m doing right now.

The simple fact of the matter is, the ultimate objective, Obama and the Democrats and the whole anti-war crowd — Code Pink, MoveOn.org, you name it — is to prove for the rest of time that everything Bush did was a mistake and was for nothing. It’s to continue the public perception of Bush was rotten and horrible, incompetent, dangerous, inconsiderate, unfeeling, uncaring. Nouri al-Maliki asking for American air support in Iraq gives Obama another political opportunity to blame Bush. And that is an opportunity they just can’t pass up. It’s too juicy.

The opportunity here to secure defeat in Iraq, have it overrun by Al-Qaeda, buck up Taliban in Afghanistan, essentially get out of there and hand that country over to them. What have you done? You have proven in your mind, for the rest of time, that George W. Bush’s wars were all for nothing. You have proven that George Bush was a dirty, rotten president. You have proven that Bush had no business going anywhere. You have proven that we lost lives unnecessarily. You have advanced your own political agenda, and at the same time you are hopefully, in their view, exciting your base. As I say, the Michael Moore crowd, which just loves to see the American military fail. Because they consider the American military an agent of evil in the world.

The GOP has always been considered the party best at foreign policy, something the Democrats don’t like. This is an opportunity to take a hit at that. In other words, it’s a political opportunity. Iraq falling, Afghanistan falling, that is a political gold mine. That is a grand-slam home run. If you want to doubt me, go right ahead, but just ask yourself how often does Barack Obama blame George W. Bush for everything that is, has been, or will go wrong in this country? He does it still to this day. The effort to say or to illustrate: “We can’t trust these Republicans with foreign policy. They go into these parts of the world and they do it for personal reasons and they fail and they get people killed, and it’s horrible.”

Now, also remember all the other countries that sent soldiers to fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan who went along with us, because of, at the time, our power, if you will, and our moral authority. That is another thing here that can be chopped down. Our moral authority. The US can’t be trusted. Abandons allies, goes places where it’s hopeless. Republican presidents incompetent, get us involved in ill-conceived and poorly executed foreign wars. You fill in the blanks. This is a golden opportunity and I predicted it back 2011. So when I saw the New York Times story, “Iraq Said to Seek US Strikes on Militants” and the Regime, “Well, we’d love to, but really not,” no surprise here.

Let’s go back, in fact. December 14th, 2011. This Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Obama addressing the troops there.

OBAMA: We’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq with a representative government that was elected by its people. We’re building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war, not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home. This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making.

RUSH: You’re saying, “Rush, what is he doing there?” He’s taking credit for it at the time. Everything is done with a political calculation. So we’re getting out of Iraq. The place is stable. There was a short period of time where it appeared to end up (aside from the weapons of mass destruction fiasco) a successful enterprise. And right there, December 14th, 2011, is Obama taking credit for it.

Now, nobody’s gonna remember that. Now al-Maliki is asking for air support, Al-Qaeda is overrunning parts of the country, and it’s just a political gold mine for the Regime. Here’s Major Garrett of CBS This Morning, and his report about this, the Islamist insurgents taking over cities in Iraq.

GARRETT: There is deep concern in the White House about the swift-moving and brutal advance of these Al-Qaeda-inspired insurgents across Iraq. But there is no new policy to counter that insurgency.

RUSH: And there won’t be, but there’s “deep concern.” See? “Well, we care, but that’s not our problem anymore. We shouldn’t have been there in the first place. It’s not something that we’ll ever do again with the Democrats in charge, with Obama in charge. It was a total mistake to go in there. Bush should have never gone in there. Ditto Afghanistan,” and that, my friends, is all you need to know about that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Carolyn in Willow Park, Texas, glad that you called. Great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Oh, it’s such a pleasure to speak with you Rush.

RUSH: Thank you! Thanks so much.

CALLER: I’m such a fan.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: What I was calling about was last night I was watching Fox News and I got really depressed seeing the Iraq situation there. My daughter-in-law’s only brother was killed in Iraq in 2008, and it was just devastating for her family.

RUSH: I’m sure.

CALLER: And so I feel like, you know, maybe Cory’s life was in vain because of what we’re seeing. Obama just threw it away. Everything that Bush had done — and Bush had done some good things. He wasn’t perfect, but he did some good things, and that coupled with the border situation with all those children, it was just a lot to take last night.

RUSH: I can imagine how you feel about this, and… Well, let me ask. When you hear that the Iraqis had made a request for us to provide some air support to repel some of the Al-Qaeda attempts to overrun cities and we turned ’em down, what do you think? What’s your reaction to it?

CALLER: Well, I was thinking of that last night. If we would just send in some jets and take care of ’em like we did in Baghdad, it didn’t take very long. Don’t put anymore boots on the ground, but take them out.

RUSH: I tell you, I can’t —

CALLER: We can’t just allow them to take over that country again and undo everything that was done through 4500 young men and women losing their lives.

RUSH: Well, look, grab sound bites 25 and 26. We’ve got Obama on this. Carolyn, I don’t know what is going to happen. I stand by what I said in the first hour, that this administration looks at everything politically. They make a political calculation on every event. Every school shooting, every hurricane — I don’t care what it is — everything is gonna be related to the advancement of their agenda or damaging what they think the Republican agenda is.

I’m here to tell you, in an election year, I really… Can any of you see Obama committing even one jet to Iraq? Do you realize what his base would say? The Code Pinks, the Michael Moores? They’re already mad at the guy ’cause they don’t think he’s moved far enough left fast enough. They’re already mad at him ’cause he hasn’t closed Gitmo, and they’re already mad at him ’cause he expanded Afghanistan for a while.

They’re already mad at him ’cause Obamacare doesn’t work, and that was their utopian panacea. If he sends one jet over there? Pshew! But I stand by what I said in the first hour. As far as Obama and the Democrats are concerned, hanging… In fact, I can prove this to you. Let me make the assertion again and then prove it.

The assertion that I’m making is that if Obama and the Democrats can further cement the notion that Iraq was a total mistake made by Bush and the Republicans, they will do it. If they can discredit Cheney and everybody involved — Rumsfeld, Bush — by letting Iraq fall, that’s a big political home run for them. You have to be honest with yourselves about them, though.

That’s why I said in the first hour, it takes courage to admit the truth about liberalism and liberals, and they are… Let me put it this way. They’re not disappointed at military failure. They’re not disappointed at all. But if this strikes you as a bit harsh, may I remind you of their behavior while we were in Iraq, for the last three years? MoveOn.org, Code Pink, you name it.

Obama, John Kerry, John Murtha. Every day they we’re doing everything they could to discredit the war effort in Iraq. All it took was one allegation that Marines, say, in Haditha were raping and terrorizing women and children, and out went Jack Murtha and John Kerry to believe it and condemn these Marines before there had been any investigation. They couldn’t wait!

General Petraeus is set to show up and testify. This is where Mrs. Clinton said, before she’d even heard him say a word, that she was gonna have to willingly suspend her disbelief in order to listen to him ’cause he was gonna lie, and the MoveOn.org people ran an ad: “General Betray Us.” Oh, I don’t want to lose my train of thought and I promise you I won’t. One of the people responsible for that ad is married to an Obama administration official.

His name is Jesse Lee or Jesse Hill, I forget which. He’s in charge of media outreach to “progressives” on the Internet and so forth. His wife is now also at the Obama administration, and she was behind the Betray Us ad. She has just lodged a formal request at the Washington Post that they fire George Will, because he wrote a column she doesn’t like reading about rape and sexual abuse on campus.

So a member of the Obama administration, somebody married to an Obama Regime member, is out petitioning the Washington Post to fire George Will. That’s who these people are. They do not believe in free speech, institutionally. They do not believe in it. They want to shut you down, if you say things or write things that they don’t want to read or hear about.

These are the same people that were doing everything they could to saddle George W. Bush with a loss in Iraq. Be honest with yourselves. The last three years of the Bush term, second term, every day the body counts, the allegations of terrorism committed by our Marines, the effort to discredit every aspect of the war, the effort to make it look like we shouldn’t have gone, that Bush’s motives were impure. They were just personal because Saddam had once tried to kill his father.

So it’s not a stretch to assert and to believe that the Democrats don’t have a problem with the American military losing, particularly if they can saddle the defeat around the Republicans. Well, I hate to tell you, because if Iraq falls, whose fault has it always been? It’s always been Bush’s. “It’s one of these things that poor Obama inherited. Oh, it’s so bad, and it’s so much worse than he was told.”

It was like the economy. It was so much worse than what Obama was told, and it was so bad, it took him much longer to fix these things than he planned, and it was all Bush’s fault. If Iraq falls, and if Afghanistan falls, I’m telling you that Obama and his media acolytes are gonna blame it all on Bush, and they’re gonna do it because they think it advances their political agenda.

So it is by no means a stretch to make this allegation. Now, let’s listen to Obama. Grab sound bite 25. This meeting at the White House after a meeting with the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, Q&A with the media. The reporter said, “Are you considering drone strikes or any further action to stop insurgents in Iraq?”

OBAMA: My team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them. I don’t rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter. It’s fair to say that in our consultations with the Iraqis, there will be some short-term, immediate things that need to be done militarily — and, you know, our national security team is looking at all the options. But this should be also a wake-up call for the Iraqi government.

RUSH: All right. As usual, everything Obama said before the word “but” is meaningless. Let me explain. (imitating Obama) “My team’s working around the clock. We’ve gotta identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them. I don’t rule out anything because because because, Iraq and Syria. It’s fair to say that in our consultations there is gonna be some short-term immediate things that need to be done and, you know, our national security team will look at all the options. But, but, but,” what came next, “this should be a wake-up call for the Iraqi government.”

Translation: They’re on their own. What do you mean a wake-up call for the Iraqi government? When did they fall asleep? They haven’t had time to go to sleep. What does this mean, a wake-up call for the Iraqi government? What it means is they’re on their own. And the rest of this was just for media consumption and reportage. The Regime is considering action to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, thinking about it, working very hard, consultation with Iraq, blah, blah, blah. That’s what the low-information crowd is supposed to hear. It’s what Michael Moore and Code Pink and the rest are supposed to ignore.

The real meat is after the word “but.” This should be a wake-up call for the Iraqi government. Meaning they’re on their own. These things are not easy for me to say, folks, but I’m not here to come up short. And it’s, to me, inescapable. Just look at the Democrats’ behavior while the Iraq war was ongoing. Now, some of you might say, “But wait, Rush, and I remember you even saying they would love to saddle Bush with the defeat. But if they take over and this war is still going on, they did not want the defeat to happen on their watch.”

Well, remember, Obama’s already claimed victory for the war. We played the sound bite, 2011, Obama took credit. The Iraq war was won, and he took credit for it. Now this is new stuff. And I guarantee you, like everything else, it’s gonna be blamed on Bush. Obama fixed this. This is something that was fixed, it was done. Now the Iraqis have done something, and those Iraqis were Bush’s people, Nouri al-Maliki, Chalabi. These are all Bush’s people. I know how this is gonna play out, and I know that everything they do is political. I also know that I have to do this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me remind you, ladies and gentlemen, of something that Joe Biden said on Larry King Alive. I don’t have the date, but it was when Larry King was still alive — well, when he was on CNN, yeah. Here’s what Biden said. He’s talking about Iraq. You’ll remember this when I read this to you.

“I think it’s gonna be one of the great achievements of this administration. … You’re gonna see a stable government in Iraq. … I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. … They have been deciding to use the political process, rather than guns, to settle their differences.” Joe Biden. (imitating Biden) “Stand up, Chuck. God love you, Chuck. Stand up and let ’em see you! Come on, Chuck, stand up! Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God bless. Everybody stand up for Chuck,” because Chuck was in a wheelchair.

I’ll get the exact date of this. Obama had claimed credit for victory in Iraq. Biden goes on Larry King Alive, “I think it’s gonna be one of the great achievements of this administration. … You’re gonna see a stable government in Iraq. … I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. … They have been deciding to use the political process, rather than guns, to settle their differences.”

See, they were even ripping Bush then. We’re gonna do this right. We’re gonna do this with words. We’re gonna do this with negotiations. We’re gonna do this with doctors and nurses and clean water and compassion and health care and education. All that rotgut that they talk about all the time. And now Nouri al-Maliki is begging for an F-15, one F-15 to drop some bombs.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s the audio sound bite itself. This is Vice President Bite Me, Joe Biden, on February 10, 2010. So four years ago. On Larry King Alive on CNN, this is Biden. This is when they think that they have won the Iraqi war, and they’re out there taking credit for it, and they’re predicting it’s gonna be peace and tranquility from here on out.

BIDEN 2010: I’m very optimistic about — about Iraq. I think it’s gonna be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re gonna see 90,000 American troops come marchin’ home by the end of the summer. You’re gonna see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.

RUSH: Right, political process. (translated) “We’re not gonna see any guns and ammo and weaponry or that kind of stuff because we know how to do these things.” They’re claiming credit for it. I remember when he said this, and we had a bit of incredulity here because they had just spent three years trying to kill this war effort, and they hated it and despised it, and now they were claiming victory and all the credit for it, and now it’s all falling apart.

Boehner just said that the president’s taking a nap on Iraq, and that’s not what he’s doing. I guarantee you there is a political calculation that they’re making about this. This is an election year, and their base… If Obama does anything militarily and doesn’t clear it with the Service Employees International Union and with the Hollywood people and some of the big global warming donors and the Michael Moore crowd and the Code Pink?

If he doesn’t square it with them, there’s gonna hell to pay ’cause it’s not gonna be just me that’s gonna revive that Biden sound bite, and it’s not gonna be just me reviving all these previous statements Obama and Biden have made about how their way guarantees the peace and all that. So we shall see.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Rob in Annapolis, Maryland, as we head back to phones. Thank you for waiting, Rob. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Yes. Hi, Rush. It’s a great honor to speak to you.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I just wondered what your thoughts were on the news reports about the Iraqi soldiers, you know, when this jihad, you know, terrorists came in, trying to attack and take over the cities in Iraq. They’re taking off their uniforms and putting their weapons down and running and leaving. And after, you know, we spent all this time trying to train them and it’s all our infrastructure and weapons and materiel we left there for them to use and then they run away and then the terrorists take it over. I mean, how can we help them if they don’t even want to help themselves?

RUSH: Well, two things.

CALLER: I mean, I want to help ’em but, you know, how can you —

RUSH: We don’t know —

CALLER: — make progress if they don’t even want —

RUSH: Look, we don’t know that the people doing that are not Al-Qaeda infiltrators in the first place, number one. Phony soldiers, fake soldiers, if you will. And I’m not saying they are. I have no idea. Possibility, however. Those kinds of things do happen. Bad guys do infiltrate good guys’ camps. Another thing, when you say how can we help them if they don’t want to help themselves. I understand that. But forget about helping them. What about if it’s in our own interests to try to keep Iraq from becoming an Al-Qaeda state?

CALLER: No, I agree, yeah, I think we should do that, but again, I guess how do we get from being I guess stuck there forever and just, you know —

RUSH: Look, this is a tough call because the last three years of the Iraq war were portrayed in the media by Democrats as a worthless effort, hopeless cause, waste of time. I don’t know that there is a public relations way of reviving support for any military action in Iraq. I mean, even if all it is is a couple of fighter jets dropping bombs, but that is a decision for the commander-in-chief. It doesn’t matter, you know, representing the best interests of the United States, national security, that’s what should matter to him, not public opinion on something like this.

Public opinion’s hopelessly lost on this. I mean, there’s no way anybody’s gonna be talked into military action in Iraq again, not after the way this thing was literally destroyed. And, by the way, it was always a tough thing. I mean, Bush’s goal was always a tough thing. A lot of people think it was never achievable because people there do not have the same foundation that we did when our country was formed, the idea to democratize the place.

The Bush theory was that human beings everywhere are all alike, and that they all want freedom. And if you open up a closed and oppressed society that people will do what’s in their own best interests if you give them a right and a chance to do so. And the theory was we’re all God’s children and if we democratize that place, we turn it into a functioning republic, democracy, that it will be a beacon in the Middle East and it will show other people who are living in tyranny what’s possible. That was the dream. That was the stated objective.

There were a lot of people, even on Bush’s side, who thought, “Wait a minute. This is not the role of the US military. That’s not what the military’s supposed to do. That’s a political achievement that has to take place among the leadership and the people.” But even stating that, I’ll never forget the first elections in Iraq, all of those people that stood in line for two days to vote. I mean, a lot of them did behave the way Bush thought they would. But I don’t think corruption was ever rooted out of the place.

This country is so tribal. Kurds in the north, the Sunnis and the Shi’a. That’s a civil war that’s been going on long before there even was an Iraq, that no amount of American influence or history is going to change. The Sunnis are the majority. They vastly outnumber the Shi’a, and those people hate each other even though they’re all Islamists. A real, real dislike, let’s put it that way. I don’t like using the word “hate” very much.

So them not helping themselves, that’s most people, when you get down to it. Most people don’t help themselves. I’m talking about worldwide, the old saw, 5% pull the wagon, 95% are in it. Democracy and freedom is hard. Democracy and freedom, even though freedom I believe is the natural yearning of the human spirit, I believe that’s how we’re created, it’s hard because the history of the world is not freedom. That’s what American exceptionalism is. We are the exception to it.

Look how long it took us to get it and how strident and deadly and bloody the battle for it was. And then after that came the Civil War, where the casualties and fatalities dwarfed those in the Revolutionary War. It’s really hard. Freedom is something that has to be secured every day. It’s another reason why there’s a Tea Party, by the way. Some people see that vanishing. Anyway, Rob, I appreciate the call.