Posted on 08/23/2009 6:59:39 PM PDT by james500
In the midst of ear-splitting explosions, the Iraqi coalition originally forged between 38 countries has dwindled to one, a coalition of one – the U.S.A. With most of the media attention focused on health-care reform and the sky-rocketing U.S. deficit, little attention was paid to Iraq as the last of the 2003 coalition members withdrew, leaving the Americans to go it alone.
The U.S., as the leader of Multi-National Force, maintains roughly the same level of troop strength in Iraq as when President Obama took office. Mr. Obama campaigned aggressively on a pledge to bring the American troops home, however many of the troops who did leave Iraq were sent to participate in Obama’s Afghanistan surge, which by all reports is not going well for the Americans and coalition troops there.
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After the departure of British, Romanian and Australian troops last month, the remaining 130,000-odd American troops are now the only foreign force in MNF-I. Meanwhile, violence has sharply escalated in the war-torn country since President Bush ordered a surge that brought relative calm and a plummeting death toll for all factions.
As quietly as the coalition left the Americans alone in Iraq, President Obama ordered a surge in Afghanistan just after taking office. Unfortunately, it failed to stop the Taliban from regrouping and now Obama is quietly building on the last surge, sending thousands more troops into Afghanistan.
Public support for the Afghan war has tanked under Obama, and despite his pledge to bring the troops home from Iraq, 130.000 American military personnel are hunkered down in that country while the Pentagon contemplates the need for tens of thousands more in Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at digitaljournal.com ...
Officially, the occupation (Phase IV) ended on 1 January 2009. That is when the UN Mandate terminated. It is the official end of the Iraq War. [Just like the final peace treaty and withdraw of Soviet forces in Germany terminated WWII for Germany in the 1990s.]
The US negotiated a bilateral deal to stay longer. With the exceptions of NATO, UK, and Romania, the rest simply left before 1 Jan. Romania and UK switched to training only and they departed. NATO Training Mission - Iraq is still operational.
Why won’t the name change from the “Multinational” designator to “US” designator until next January?
US forces hands were tied when Iraqi forces promised to protect Iranian dissidents, yet did otherwise:
The video:
Story:
If anyone knows the whole story regarding this video, I’d like to hear it.
The story reads that the Iranian dissidents were peacefuly protesting when this occurred. It’s a sad state all over these days.
My best guess is they need to use up the stationary.
I am already calling them USF-I...
the Iraqi coalition originally forged between 38 countries has dwindled to one, a coalition of one... After the departure of British, Romanian and Australian troops last month, the remaining 130,000-odd American troops are now the only foreign force in MNF-I.
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