He just had to get in one last dig at the troops who fought and died there.
(CBS News) — President Obama marked the end of the United States’ almost nine-year war in Iraq on Monday, saying at an appearance with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the final U.S. troops leave Iraq this year “with their heads held high.”
Mr. Obama is taking something of a victory lap this week for fulfilling his campaign promise to end the war, which will effectively end when the several thousand remaining troops exit the country by December 31. On Saturday, he thanked service members at the annual Army-Navy football game; on Wednesday, he and first lady Michele Obama will visit Fort Bragg in North Carolina to speak to troops about the war. […]
Asked if he still agrees with his onetime characterization of the Iraq war as a “dumb war,” Mr. Obama responded, “History will judge the original decision to go into Iraq, but what’s absolutely clear is that . . . what we have now achieved is an Iraq that is self-governing, that is inclusive, and that has enormous potential.”
Flashback 2002: Obama rails against a “dumb war.”