Lindsey Graham Quotes
Quote A: I don’t think we need boots on the ground I don’t think that is an option worth consideration. Quote B: This idea that we’ll never have any boots on the ground to defeat them [ISIS] in Syria is fantasy.
ground troops fighting in Iraq & Syria in addition to air power Quote A was made in June of 2014. Quote B, 3 months later in September. In June there are rumors that the Obama administration might commit more military assets to the situation in Iraq and Syria and Graham was afraid that the President might be considering ground troops. Three months later, President Obama announced a policy of making a serious military commitment to the area, but stated that he would not be using ground troops. Graham then criticized the President for NOT deploying ground troops reversing his previous position. This is a marvelous example of the hyper partisanship and the virulent anti-Obama action by the Republicans. Actually, Graham was better than most of the Republicans. He was always polite. He criticized the President’s policies and actions even if he had to twist around to do it. Many of his colleagues made vicious personal attacks on the President and kept spreading rumors that he was not a Christian but a Muslim who was not born in America and was indoctrinated in Islam as a boy. Graham’s flip flop was explained by him as a change that was made necessary by the rise and military aggression of ISIS which he also blamed on the President for not committing more resources to the Syrian insurgents.
Lindsey Graham, U. S. Senator (Republican, NC), Contradictory Quotations attacking the policies of the Obama Administration, Quoted in Dana Milbank, “Galloping to a ground war”, The Washington Post, September 17, 2014
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
3 years later he led America on a huge invasion and nation building project in Iraq. It turned out that had he listened to his own advice and not flip-flopped, the huge cost of the Iraq War might have been avoided.
English law and United States law are different. The George W, Bush administration has argued that regime change—removing Sadaam Hussein from power and control of Iraq—would be legal under U. S. law. This belief was never tested in the American Courts during the Iraq War.
Four years later the President embarked on a nation-building effort in Iraq which was beset with many problems.
Lindsey Olin Graham is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A member of the Republican Party, Graham served as chair of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 2019 to 2021.