In his official remarks about the end of the U.S.
occupation of Iraq, President Obama told an assembly of troops,
“Your service belongs to the ages. Never forget that you are part
of an unbroken line of heroes spanning two centuries.” Sheldon
Richman notes that if you only heard those words, you’d never know
that a signature of Obama’s 2008 campaign was his assertion that
the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a terrible mistake. What
changed to make Obama talk about an aggressive and unnecessary war
in this new way?