The US government has decided to hype its “official” end to the Iraq War today, and a number of media outlets are dutifully responding, praising the ostensible end to the Iraq War and showing footage of the “last brigade” leaving from Iraq.
The “last brigade,” of course, except for all of the brigades which make up roughly 50,000 US combat troops, that didn’t leave. Those troops’ jobs won’t change, combat will continue, but they were redefined as “transition troops” for the sake of being able to claim that the president withdrew “all combat forces.”
Praising the “end of the war,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley praised the “declining violence” in Iraq, while neglecting to mention that violence has actually been increasing for several months, and that July was the deadliest month in the nation in over two years.
The administration that brought us the “government-in-a-box” fiasco in Marjah is now bringing us the “victory-in-a-box” TV spot, with all the pomp and self-congratulatory shamelessness of the LeBron James Free Agent Signing Special. Its a wonder the administration didn’t book a musical guest, perhaps putting some former American Idol winner at the Kuwaiti border waiting for the troops to arrive.
And at the end of a live journey with embedded reporters, the war “ends”and the “last troops” come home. Except that all the fighting is still going on and the bulk of the troops are still there, and not leaving for months or even years.
This is true there still are many troops but the mission has changed. They are not to engage only advise (not sure how you advise a bullet or IED not to hit you). The media will always hitch on it needs to fill cable time and google links. They have been waiting for this story for a long time and want to think of their youth when the war started. Is it not good that the war is winding down for us? Pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan is never going to be accomplished without an increase in violence, hence the never ending presence. It is best to pull out even without a stable government in place. It is not our country and we need not be there. We tried to fix the mess we made by invading, a lot of companies got rich and a lot of innocent people died it is nothing to celebrate. I guess I am just wondering by your tone if you are confused on how to end the war, as it is winding down.
I would imagine that the Iraqi resistance looks at this this way: Let the Americans stay. Let them bleed. Let them continue borrowing money from China and Japan to pay for their army of economic conscripts and hired mercenaries. And when they are at their weakest, both in numbers and staying power, wait a little longer for them to commit an especially egregious crime against us. That will be the moment to strike everywhere: let them have the mother of all Tet Offensives, and we will liberate our country from the murderous Americans and their corrupt internal allies. And when we are in power, our first act will be to re-nationalize our resources for the benefit off all Iraqis, declare all contracts with American firms null and void, and commence a long term alliance with China to develop our oil fields. Not a drop of Iraqi oil for the Americans until they pay trillions in reparations for the Iraqis they've murdered, the Iraqi children they've maimed and orphaned, the society they willfully and intentionally destroyed.