The Iraq War is Coming to an End
And today, as President Obama was outlining the thing that so many of us wanted for so many years, I missed most of the announcement to finish a deadline document. If you missed it too, here is the video of the complete address:
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For as much pain and anger this entire piece of our history caused so many of us, you can’t help but be pleased that President Obama struck such a balanced and grateful tone in this. No blame or recitation of the crazyness, just thanks to the people who did the work and how this ends. I’m not all that happy with the 19 month (rather than the campaign 16 month) timeline for drawdown, but was very glad to see a real end date — December 2011. This is going to leave alot of us who wanted these forces home sooner rather than later, but acknowledging the Status of Forces end date I hope makes the Iraqis really believe that we will truly leave, and be confident that work to build their institutions and defense mechanisms will mean that they will finally be their own government.
We are in for some in-fighting amongst Dems who wanted more home and wanted them home more quickly than this. I want the same thing. But today, I am just delighted that we are no longer fighting over ending this thing — but over when.
Tags: Bush's FUBAR War
That December 2011 end date with the potential of up to 50,000 troops left in Iraq is so much different than the December 2011 end date negotiated by the Bush Administration last year.
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-11/2008-11-17-voa66.cfm?CFID=127817796&CFTOKEN=40210945&jsessionid=de309b65ac43e6c12b4d6a35217f45581365
“At a news conference Monday, the top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, responded “yes” when asked whether the agreement signed in Baghdad earlier in the day requires all U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, regardless of the security conditions. But he also called the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, “adequate for what we need now.” “
I’m prepared for the in-fighting, but here’s where I am on this issue. I always viewed the 16 month date as a goal simply because the situation in Iraq is constantly changing, and Obama always stressed that he’d be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.
President Obama is now the Comander in Chief, ain’t he?
What he says goes….let the crybabies eat sh*t and die. Oh, yes, and the Lobbyists too.
If you look at the text of Obama’s speech, he is pretty clear that August 31, 2010 is when all “combat” troops are supposed to be out — leaving about 50K for a number of purposes. He is just as clear that December 2011 is when all troops are supposed to be gone — in accordance with the SOFA (just as Admiral Mullen notes in your quote).
The 50K remaining troops will not be for combat, but for “fighting terrorism”.
Cassandra, how is that supposed to make “the Iraqis really believe that we will truly leave” ?
Obama is not, and never was, really opposed to the war on Iraq.
They’re going to be there for training, as well. And they’ll be gone in 2011, which is better than the permanent bases the Bush Administration wanted.
Excuse me! Obama is not ending this war, keeping 50,000 there is not an end to the war. Get real. Sending troops to Afganistan without telling us the reason, or the end game is very Bush! I’m sorry, while some liberals will never say one word against Obama and his foreign policy (which is totally right wing by the way), I for one, am not willing to “get on board for the next war, or stay on board with the Iraq War).
For him to say we went to war to get rid of Sadaam is certainly not my memory. That was giving Bush a plus, not stating the truth…the reason for the invasion kept changing based on lies and deceit. Staying one month or two months more, and leaving 50,000 there is pure horse hocky. It tells me the Pentagon is clearly in charge, and he is allowing them to rule the day.
The 50K troops have a few functions — xstryker added one of them — and if Obama is true to this plan, they’ll be gone about 15 months after the combat units are gone. No other American official has given a date when we’d be gone — BushCo, even after signing the SOFA, largely indicated that we’d stay as long as we’d like. If I were an Iraqi, I’d certainly be cautiously optimistic that the occupation may really stop.
“if Obama is true to this plan”
if, if, if,
First it was 16 months, now it’s 19 months (sort of).
He’s not “responsibly ending the war”.
He’s irresponsibly prolonging the war.
Ask yourself how many more Iraqis have to die because we let Obama string us along.