Leave behind a stabilizing force after we sacrificed so much. Almost 4,500 lives, 32,000 wounded, $850 billion spent. President Obama came into office and Iraq was largely stable. His job was to maintain that stability and hopefully increase it. But the only way we could do that is by leaving American troops behind to pressure Maliki to have a true coalition government. (03:43–03:47)
CLAIM
Asserts that Iraq was largely stable when President Obama took office.
This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.
