As the last few US troops withdraw from Iraq, putting a cap on the latest of innumerable “ends” to the Iraq War, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R – CA) angrily condemned Obama for not being more open in declaring how great a military victory the conquest of Iraq actually was.
Obama did declare the war a “success” however, saying that the nine years of occupation was “an extraordinary achievement” and “one of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of the American military.”
The Iraq he “leaves behind” (putting aside the State Department’s private army and the massive embassy) is starkly different from the Iraq that America found in 2003. The population has dropped considerably, both from refugees fleeing the conquering forces and the enormous death toll, while the cities are much more segregated along religious lines than ever before.
Its an Iraq that’s celebrating, however, if only because the most obvious signs of the US occupation, the ground troops, are leaving. Iraqis took to the streets today celebrating the way much of the world seems to celebrate these days, burning the American flag and celebrating the lack of US troops with guns trained on them.
The demonstrators said today was the “first annual” celebration of its type, aimed at commemorating those Iraqis who resisted the occupation. Whether there will be a second annual celebration without any US troops remains to be seen.
Did Obama celebrate the 50,000 mercenaries who remain behind? Because I'm pretty sure that also is an extraordinary chapter in the history of the American military.
So what American forces remain? Those "trainers"? The huge embassy with their puppet dictator is over! What a waste of time energy and money
Now they "the Yanks" will have to pay for all the destruction,the sanctions,the murders,RAPE,Torture sodomy,and the filth they left behind will forever stain the worlds oldest civilization and to those who orchestrated this criminal enterprise are free to flout the law only in the US but the minute the leave "well" that remains to be seen.
10 years of wasted lives and wasted money all so the Shia Friends of Iran can take over Iraq. One good thing is that these wars have sickened a lot of the American population of all this nonsense.
But look on the bright side. There are all those potential policemen who know how to deal with a hostile populace.
Why is my stuff being deleted? I did nothing wrong.
Seconded.
Obama doesn't dare tell the truth about the start-to-finish clusterf*ck that was the Iraq war, and IS the continuing Iraq occupation. He'd probably be delighted to expound on Bush/Cheney incompetence and criminality, but truthfully explaining the waste of American lives and treasure would violate the America-never-loses-and-can-do-no-wrong rule and surely lose him whole bunches of swing votes from folks whose sense of self-worth is tied to that delusion.
Morality aside, it wasn't worth it.
We are not finished destroying Iraq. In the 1980s, we gave Saddam poison gas to destroy whole Kurdish villages. In 1991, we buried their soldiers alive or burned them alive in trapped retreating columns of vehicles. And we destroyed the water and sewage systems and we doused the country with depleted uranium. In the 1990s, we deprived them of food and medicines, causing millions of the most vulnerable to die. In 2003, we again doused them with depleted uranium and again destroyed their water and sewage systems, and then we killed 1 million and made 5 million into refugees. Now we are gone. But next we are going to blow up nuclear reactors and nuclear refineries in neighboring Iran, which will douse Iraq with massive amounts of radiation and will end their Persian Gulf oil exports. We are not nice people.
The war criminals in Washington who orchestrated this disaster should be hanged.
I like to refer readers to a shocking story in published in the NY Times to-day 15/12/'11 ('World') entitled: "Junkyard Gives Up Secret Accounts of Massacre in Iraq".
Indeed.
We are very, very lucky that flags are all that is burning- our phoney 'departure' could just as easily been under fire from any number of outfits wanting a little payback on us for the last ten years. I'm very surprised our convoys and staging areas haven't been under siege this whole time.
And Madame Clinton proclaims that not just that embassy but two consulates in (what I imagine are oil-rich) other cities will all be fully funded and never forgotten when appropriations time comes rolling along.
Hello – gee the deleting is mysterious. What's up?
I loved this article. It is a wonderful thing that our troops are finally coming home safely. I'm going to put out my flag.
What? Am I now persona non grata? Or does the administrator simply want to take the night off?
i think it would be a great idea for all those who supported this war to throw a huge victory celebration
can i suggest perhaps you march in a parade down Baghdad's main streets.
think of the great photo op to see all those American politician buried in flowers!
well at least part of that might happen…