15 MAR 2003
?
Posted on 08/18/2010 4:03:19 PM PDT by markomalley
KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait (AP) -- As their convoy reached the barbed wire at the border crossing out of Iraq on Wednesday, the soldiers whooped and cheered. Then they scrambled out of their stifling hot armored vehicles, unfurled an American flag and posed for group photos.
For these troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Bush’s fault.
Thank You George W Bush for the surge that allowed a (relatively) peaceful exit.
While I’m glad to see us coming home there’s a flip side that it went against Hussein to fight his own. Remember, he said if it came down to it, he would side with muslims.
We need the clic of Harry Reid saying that the “war is lost”
So did Hussein lie when he said the remaining advisors are fully combat capable?
And THANK YOU, President Bush for your perseverence and dogged desire for victory!
We have a great military, and we HAD a great Commander in Chief.
Call me a cynic, but I give it a month before they are in a civil war with an Iranian backed militant army.
There are 50K troops still there,
Possibly they mean that Combat Arms troops have left, All troops are combat troops
Unless the U. S. keeps up a strong Military presence in Iraq, the country will fall again to terrorist sympathizers or again become a terrorist nation.
The Iraqi/Arab is not a disciplined soldier, they are lazy and undisciplined.
Bottom line is that they will fight for whoever offers them the most money.
When most American advisors and auxillary military leave, Iraq will again become a threat to the U. S. within a year, IMHO!
I bet our 50,000 troops who are still there, dealing with explosions etc, are glad to hear the ‘combat troops’ are leaving.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA , yeah right.
Did his son, or grandson, win his primary in Wy?
See post #9
I thought young Simpson was running for a lesser office...
Thank you President Bush.....
And thank you Secretary Rumsfeld.
Your country owes you a great debt.
No one will ever convince me that it was the wrong for us to go there.
Saddam DID have WMD’s. He had them made, he had them ready to be made on rapid reaction standby, and he was planning bigger and better things like nukes.
He was also planning to use them in CIA type operations to maximize terror.
Bush saved our asses on that one.
We’ll be back.
If you mean Colin Simpson he has or had a seat in the legislature and was running for Governor.
OK, thanks..so he did lose..
Interesting that the MSM and Rats are celebrating leaving Iraq even though there’s more troops still in Iraq than there currently is in Germany.
Yes he did. In his own book he said this.
God help us.
Wow!
How about that!
Just in time for the midterm elections!
All those soldiers returning home can go to their local bank and take out a small-business loan!
Which are also — COINCIDENTALLY ENOUGH — ALSO just starting to be pushed out by the banks!
Just in time for the midterms!
As a Christian I try not to hate anyone.
But I’m a human and imperfect. And I guess it is the imperfect side of me that hates Obammie the Commie.
OK, so when is the welcome home national parade?
I understand that the Obama Adminstration has contracted with Code Pink to manage that effort. You might want to check with them.
;-)
However, I also have a great fear that Iraq could deconstruct itself since we're not really done there. Seven years is a short time to accomplish the task we set out on in April 2003. Building the structures of self governance, the security apparatus, getting the systems and processes up on running so this country can survive as a sovereign state is a monumental task. Most people have no understanding of the scale and complexity of what we're trying to accomplish. They have no real historical perspective and the issue of Iraq becomes nothing more than a list of buzz words that have no real meaning. Like baking bread, things take time, and turning up the heat does not make the bread bake any faster. Creating courts, vetting/training/equipping/structuring a military, new Iraqi police force and intelligence service, getting the governmental processes and elections running is no small task and does not happen over night. It takes time to phase in a new currency, repair damaged infrastructure, come up with a Constitution, etc etc etc.
As with Germany, Korea, the Balkans today and Afghanistan......... these sort of things take a long time. However, our political process and the games that are often played (opposition politics) with these issues is often destructive and creates arbitrary time-lines/limitations/constraints because of the political opportunism these games afford to some party involved. I stay neutral in this discussion because it was the Republicans that were playing the same sort of games with the Balkans and Clinton as the Democrats were with Iraq and Bush (Only to a lesser scale). We are withdrawing from Iraq, and this is more “symbolic” in motivation than practical in terms of assuring a lasting success for Iraq, the Middle East (regional stability) or our own national security/economic interests. The Bush hater, the self professed liberal supports this action/drawdown not out of pragmatism, but rather because Iraq became a politicized issue which like a rallying flag the two political sides gathered.
From a pure strategic standpoint, it is Iraq that has all the significance to us, more so than Afghanistan. We hold the high ground, and like in a fire fight are in actuality holding ground that offers us the advantage in the fight. Why would any reasonable person give up key terrain like this? They wouldn't. Iraq is strategic because of the influence this nation will have long term if successful on the whole region. Like the former W. Germany in the Cold War, Iraq will be a de facto counter weight to Iran, an existential threat, assuming this republic does not implode or we let Iranian influence take that place over. It's key terrain in the future for missile defense. Iraq is center stage in the GWOT (A term we no longer use, I know). From AQ (Which self proclaimed this is their main thrust/effort) to radicals from Sudan (Which my people picked up in 2004), or even Muslim wackos from Europe that decide to go there to fight Christians, the US, and the West as they see it, this place “is” the key battle space where we are executing a war in ideology (at least for them it's a war of idiology), even more so than Afghanistan. It's a place far away from our home (Take the fight to them) and we can execute this war in a less restricted manner than in other places because we own the real estate and make the rules. We can listen to whatever we want, detain for as long as we need, search homes as we please......... The rules in executing this war are to our favor because we make them. Near the Caucasus, on the Persian Gulf, between our best of friends Iran and Syria, it's in the heart of our new center of gravity when it comes to national security concerns for years to come. With water ports, airfields, robust road network, water, electricity, buildings, telecommunications net, even local labor...... this nation like Germany in the Cold War is an easy forward location to work out of, unlike landlocked and austere Afghanistan. Rich in oil, the 12th largest global producer, with the fourth largest reserves, this place has a significant economic value to us as well. The point is this- Iraq has a real tangible value to us, but it requires it's success as a republic for this to come to fruitation!
However, there is also another perspective, the one of the consequences of failure. While Iraq is a natural counterweight to Iran, if it fails it will most likely add significantly to the influence and power of Iran. A failure of Iraq would most likely lead to Iran gaining influence over Iraq through the large Shi’ia population in the South and the militias. It would shake the confidence of other and more moderate Middle Eastern nations like the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, and they too would be more mailable to the demands of a more powerful Iran which they now need to contend with, especially if they see a weakening US influence and lack of resolve. In essence, this is a zero sum game with Iran.
Furthermore, unlike Somalia or Afghanistan, it is Iraq that has a very high probability of long term success. Iraq has something that can sustain an economy, had a previously functioning government bureaucracy, infrastructure, was more world open prior 1991, is a more secular nation as far as Arab and Muslim nations go, not as tribal as many places, and has a higher literacy rate. It is Iraq that is progressing as quickly as it did because largely it has the ingredients for success, yet we are abandoning it because of politics.
Contrary to all the reports years past of quagmires, failure, etc. Iraq moved forward at an astonishing pace. In fact, from a historical perspective, faster than Germany post WWII. The Iraqi Army stood up it's fist units sooner, their Constitution was enacted earlier, their new currency came into circulation quicker than in post war Germany, but few have any historical perspective, so none of this really seems to matter in the rhetorical world where sound good arguments dominate.
It is Iraq that has all the probability of success and national strategic value to us. I truly hope that the contingent we leave behind, that our resolve to go back if necessary, the frame work of rules under which our intelligence and DoD operate over there as well as the funding for this effort is set at a level appropriate to ensure success. I hope this does not turn into an event where generals pin medals on each other, we pat ourselves on the back and call it a success, while we watch the place implode from afar.
We’ll only have the parade if Obama can stand out front and take credit. Otherwise, no parade.
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