It’s interesting to see the Bushies try to take a victory lap with the announcement that 100,000 combat troops will be removed from Iraq by the end of the month, leaving only 50,000 troops in support and security roles. First and foremost, Obama has overseen a remarkable logistical accomplishment. It isn’t easy to move this many troops and this much equipment without much incident in such a short period of time. And liberals have been mostly mute on drawdown of troops because we still have 50,000 troops in country. The goal should be to have no troops in Iraq other than those needed to protect State Department staff.
What’s irritating about the Bushies’ triumphalism isn’t just that they wasted so much money and got so many people injured and killed. The problem is that Iraq is still wracked by absurd violence and politically paralyzed. They still haven’t formed a government and it looks like Moqtada al-Sadr is going to wind up being a kingmaker there. The invasion of Iraq has empowered Iran, which has in turn radicalized Israel’s far right, which has in turn made it almost impossible to revitalize the peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Bush’s foreign policies strengthened the revolutionary Islamic regime in Teheran, bolstered the power of Hamas, gave new strength to Hizbollah, and created a permanent far right government in Israel. It is now more likely that we will see either a nuclear arms race in the Middle East or a preemptive war to try to prevent one. And then there is the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan which is immeasurably worse than before the invasion of Iraq.
I’m glad we’re pulling our combat troops out of Iraq and Obama has overseen a smooth process while keeping his campaign promise. But the region is badly screwed up and we have very little to feel optimistic about. Listening to Bushies celebrate and pat themselves on the back makes me angry…a little bit.
It isn’t easy to move this many troops and this much equipment without much incident in such a short period of time.
Was there any attack on leaving troops from “insurgents” at all? I think they figured out one thing. Either we’ll leave eventually, so they are laying quiet. Or, if we stay, we’ll eventually go bankrupt and have to leave eventually, so they’ll wait for the civil war until we leave one way or another.
Or maybe the badly mis-named “insurgents” are not attacking because they are getting what they have wanted all along?
Except, of course, they are not, since the mission of the 50,000 remaining troops (not to mention the many thousands of so-called “security contractors”) includes things that sound a hell of a lot like combat to anyone with a modicum of English comprehension and a tad of common sense.
Sure, but if you are the “insurgents” wouldn’t you rather have 50,000 troops there compared to 150,000(or whatever the number was).
Yes, the triumphalism of the Bushites is annoying for all the reasons you mentioned, and more. But what is far more annoying is the eagerness with which so many “liberals” and supposed “progressives” are drinking the Kool Aid in believing that this “withdrawal” is anything other than a downsizing and rebranding of the occupation. An occupation by any other name is still an occupation. Ditto combat. The stated mission leaves little doubt that the remaining “non-combat” troops WILL engage in combat. It’s all just political word games.
Oh yes, and there is also the nifty way both Bushies and Obamites are focusing on Iraqis’ “inability to get it together” as the cause of the country’s instability and other troubles. It is as if they have forgotten that the United States’ actions are the root cause of it all.
And, of course, it’s ALL about America. The impact of the “Iraq war” on America, the “sacrifice” America has made (for what, exactly?), the American lives lost, and American treasure spent. Olberman, by the way, was positively nauseating on Thursday night. One of the positive outcomes of attacking and occupying Iraq was – are you ready? – it made the American military a better, more cohesive fighting force. In other words, I guess, it was a great military training exercise, and if a million or so Iraqis ceased to exist, five or six million lost their homes and their country, five million or so Iraqi children were orphaned, an entire country was destroyed and its society ripped to shreds, well, that’s an unfortunate side effect. But just look at the good it did for “our” military! Woohooo! Now, if only we could get Iraqis to do what we want them to do with their country, their lives – oh yeah, and their oil………
Olberman is obviously a real man.
And apparently Rachel Maddow continued on the same vein that night;totally buying into the lie that “combat is over and now all we need to do is ‘train’ the Iraqis to serve as a worthy U.S. client”, and treating the violent invasion and occupation of Iraq as if were all about America and Americans. After Olberman I didn’t have the stomach for it, so I didn’t watch.
The Brits, with the help of the French, drew some lines on a map in the 19th century and divided up the region.
We are all still paying for that. Erase the lines and let them fight it out.
Oh, sorry, I forgot. There’s oil under that there ground.
Because, what ever is over there is not worth the 4400 + American service members AND the untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that have died there. And lest we forget, the uncountable number of people who will never be whole again.
Going back on your entry with Viktor Bout, it reminded me of the movie Lord of War, and the ending dialogue. It’s not entirely relevant, but I think it is related in some ways:
Few here seem to be remembering that the rest of the troops will becoming home at the end of 2011. Obama said he would bring combat troops home at the end of August in 2010 and that’s exactly what he and the Army did. And they did it without any drama and without consideration for whether the Iraqi government had its shit together.
That gives me great hope that the promise to bring home the rest next year will be met. Perhaps you prefer something else?
Unwinding this mess, absent a magic wand, is very complicated militarily, politically, diplomatically, and practically.
I for one, while no MSNBC fan, found great joy last week watching troops leave and listening to someone/anyone in the media give it some perspective. FNC almost completely ignored it.