That Victory
Free at last, free at last, thank Godalmighty, free at last!
This isn't total freedom yet, for any of the parties to this disastrous war. That will take more time, and more working out handovers. It's a beginning though, and despite the violence that has broken out lately it is what we should have done long ago, second only to never starting the war in the first place.
The costs to all involved are so great, in so many areas, that it's hard to see how we will ever recover. The expense added immeasurably to our country's debts, and deprived this country of any number of programs that we now suffer the lack of. We will have the ill will of the Middle East for generations to come.
U.S. troops pulled out of Baghdad on Monday, triggering jubilation among Iraqis hopeful that foreign military occupation is ending six years after the invasion to depose Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi soldiers paraded through the streets in their American-made vehicles draped with Iraqi flags and flowers, chanting, dancing and calling the pullout a "victory."
One drove a motorcycle with party streamers on it; another, a Humvee with a garland of plastic roses on the grill.
U.S. combat troops must pull out of Iraq's urban centers by midnight on Tuesday under a bilateral security pact that also requires all troops to leave the country by 2012.
All had left the capital by Monday afternoon, Major-General in Staff, Abboud Qanbar, head of Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, told Reuters.
Another Iraqi official who would not be named, said some units in cities outside Baghdad would leave at the last minute. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said 30 bases remained to be handed over. There are still some 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Addressing military leaders in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: "Our sovereignty has started and ... we should move forward to build a modern state and enjoy security which has been achieved."
This isn't total freedom yet, for any of the parties to this disastrous war. That will take more time, and more working out handovers. It's a beginning though, and despite the violence that has broken out lately it is what we should have done long ago, second only to never starting the war in the first place.
The costs to all involved are so great, in so many areas, that it's hard to see how we will ever recover. The expense added immeasurably to our country's debts, and deprived this country of any number of programs that we now suffer the lack of. We will have the ill will of the Middle East for generations to come.
Labels: Election 2008, Iraq War, Middle East
posted by Ruth at 11:00 AM
4 Comments:
.
See, the neocons were right: Iraqi's are dancing in the streets. They musta forgot to do it when we arrived. It's EXACTLY like Paris when they kicked the Nazi's out, just as predicted, only with a little... delay, or... something. But it's just the same! Bush was right! Too Right!
.
Amazingly, I haven't heard a word from the maladministration past about Victory.
Yeah. Victory in Iraq really hurts you people doesn't it.
An Arab democracy is a real bad idea right? We should have let them be crushed under a monstrous tyrant.
A dead tyrant is a good thing.
Disastrous war? A skirmish which we won.
Deal with it.
Wow, we kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and that's great with the wingnuts. Skirmishes like that are what we try to avoid here, not a point that the wingnuts understand.
Post a Comment
<< Home