Obama in 2007: The U.S. Shoudn't Continue Fighting in Iraq to Prevent Genocide

Last
night, President Obama announced that he had authorized air strikes
in Iraq, in conjunction with air drops of humanitarian aid. In a
White House
speech, he described the mission, “We can act, carefully and
responsibly, to prevent a potential act of genocide. That’s what
we’re doing on that mountain.”

This morning, reports confirmed that U.S.
air strikes had begun on militants associated with the
Islamic State.  

In a
follow-up to President Obama’s announcement last night,
Secretary of State John Kerry released a statement justifying the
strikes on the grounds that they could be necessary to prevent
genocide of the Yazidi minority group in Iraq. 

In 2007, as a first-time presidential candidate running on an
anti-war campaign, Obama said he explicitly opposed keeping U.S.
forces in Iraq to prevent genocide.

Via NBC News and the Associated Press: 

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the
United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian
problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a
good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

“Well, look, if that’s the criteria by which we are making
decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument
you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where
millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife —
which we haven’t done,” Obama said in an interview with The
Associated Press.

“We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan,
which we haven’t done. Those of us who care about Darfur don’t
think it would be a good idea,” he said.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, said it’s likely
there would be increased bloodshed if U.S. forces left Iraq.

“Nobody is proposing we leave precipitously. There are still
going to be U.S. forces in the region that could intercede, with an
international force, on an emergency basis,” Obama said between
stops on the first of two days scheduled on the New Hampshire
campaign trail. “There’s no doubt there are risks of increased
bloodshed in Iraq without a continuing U.S. presence there.”

The greater risk is staying in Iraq, Obama said.

“It is my assessment that those risks are even greater if we
continue to occupy Iraq and serve as a magnet for not only
terrorist activity but also irresponsible behavior by Iraqi
factions,” he said.

Here’s Reason’s Ed Krayewski
the question of whether the U.S. should intervene to stop
genocide