If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Post story is quite instructive, even if it is not exactly "news" in the common sense of the term.
With the final withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, I remember the four young Marines and a Navy corpsman I met in Baghdad in March 2005 at Camp Victory.
I think Biden and his team have done the best job that any outsider could have done in helping to calm sectarian distrust and to generate a commitment to a semi-democratic process as Iraq evolves.
America leaves an Iraq that is deeply divided. After decades of ruthless rule, Iraqis endured an invasion and occupation, suffered from terror and ethnic cleansing, and while the trappings of a democracy have been set-up, it remains in a gestational state.
As the last of our troops return home from Iraq, the greatest tragedy of this misguided war is if we learn nothing.
American hawks are blaming President Obama for a premature withdrawal from Iraq, as if a few thousand American troops could prevent the country's current sectarian convulsion.
Members of the Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War (KNOW) held their usual Sunday peace vigil in front of the Federal Building in downtown Kalamazoo as they have been doing since September 1, 2002. And, it doesn't look as though they are going away despite President Obama's declaration of the end of the war in Iraq.
It was the 2007 Nisour Square Blackwater killings, not Wikileaks, that derailed plans for U.S. troops to stay on in Iraq.
Given the ongoing withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and the transition to a State-Department-led mission for all remaining U.S. personnel in Iraq, this is a good time to focus more closely on what exactly is happening.
When it comes to the drawdown in Iraq, the Republican candidates for president have gone from outlandish to ignorant and irresponsible. If any of them actually believes what they've said, they should immediately be disqualified from being commander-in-chief.
As Americans, we should wish nothing but the best for the people of Iraq -- but we should also acknowledge that, if the country finds peace and prosperity, it will be in spite of what the U.S. government did to their country, not because of it.
This should be a time of celebration and reflection, of healing wounds and drawing lessons. Instead, the Republican presidential field, almost to a person, decided to play politics.
As I sit watching your televised speech about Iraq, I'm just puzzled by who you really are. I voted for you because I believed in your message -- and so did many more people than me.
This week marks the beginning of what is supposed to be the final 100 days of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Will a Super Committee plan that we will spend zero money in 2021 on occupying Afghanistan and Iraq be faulted as "not supporting the troops"? I'd love to see that. Bring it on.
