A Peace Movement Win

After years of frustrating ambiguity, President Obama has clearly committed to a complete withdrawal of all US troops in less than three years.

Speaking to the Marines in North Carolina, Obama finally clarified that the proposed "residual force" of 50,000 or more will be a "transitional" one, departing one year after combat operations end on August 31, 2010. That position is consistent with the terms negotiated by the Iraqi government in the final days of the Bush Administration, in what the Iraqi side notably called the "withdrawal agreement."

Even Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were left confused by the initial announcement, questioning whether leaving 50,000 residual troops was really a withdrawal. Obama cleared that up with Friday's speech.

In perspective, the Iraq war was wrong and illegitimate every day it was fought, and should have ended sooner. Some wanted "out now," some wanted twelve months, some eighteen. The generals in Iraq may still want to stay indefinitely.

But a phased withdrawal is tolerable -- and there's not much a movement can do about it -- if combat casualties steadily decline and all troops are heading for the exit. By agreeing to the Iraqi pact with Bush, Obama found a basis for rapidly removing the transitional troops as well. Before Friday, he remained deliberately unclear on the subject, leaving the spectre of a long counterinsurgency war like those in Central America.

This is a clear victory for those in the peace movement who supported Obama as the first anti-war candidate with a chance to become president.

The media will not acknowledge the role of the peace movement, nor will some on the Left. It will have to be explained as part of the legacy of our times. It will have to be defended against the hawks, because things can go wrong in Iraq in a hurry.

And it's a lesson that should fortify many as they take on the long wars ahead.

Comments

[tompoe]

You call it the Iraq war. Reasonable people call it an invasion/o­ccupation. Obama needs to call a halt to further occupation, and get the troops out.

[Fireslayer]

Tom was best described as no Marxist, but having a bad case of Populism. Or good case to ask me. I and many others were purged from the SDS for our pacifism.

War as insturment of policy is declining . The Neo-Clautwitzians like Kissinger are out of fashion big time. This is Tom's point.

Hilllary, my old Property Law Prof, is too smart to want wars. Bill, Tom, Hilllary and I were all a part of the Student Mobilization Against the War (In Viet Nam. The fear of the right /wrong that the New Left is now in power that they based their 2008 campaign on lost decisively. A non-iideolgical view is that war is a very last resort prevails and fortunately for us, in a post Breshnev and Breshinski,, in a post Cold War or any war era.

Our good fortune and that of the nation at large is to have inherited a world where the US is the only Super Power and we must reluctantly thank Carter/Reagan/Bush for giving us the gleaming missles to now say, wow, we can put an end to war. And no one can f*ck with us. Win Win I would say.

Damn! Tthe world is a safer place now! We can't start wars now! And neither can they- who ever they are. War is terrorism with a bigger budget. Retail terrorists are just criminals.

[SPQR1775]

Well we can't stop every wars, we can call other nations out, but that we have no MORAL authority to do unless we ceize to fight wars also. The world will be tired of war by the year 2012 rolls around and Afghanistan will not become a quagmire because we will be out by 2013 at the latest. All the Generals want to be in war because they have intelligent design to become famous, however I am happy we are leaving, most of the Generals in Iraq are Bushites anyway and Admiral Mullen at the Pentagon cast his lot with John McCain, Petraeus and Ordiderno also, but now they have their work cut out for them too. Glad that the Gods ared unto this BS.

[outnow]

War is like football. The team has no use unless there is a "game."

I listen to Joint Chief of Staff Mullen and I cannot understand how 17,000 troops in Afghanistan will promote our defense.

Eliminating the opium trade would help defund the Taliban but our efforts are about gaining a foothold to where the oil and gas pipelines would go through. The excuse is that Russia would control the area. Again, because of the Russians or, in the not-so-distant past, the Soviets, the US must involve itself in using the Mujahadeen against them.

Listen to Zbig brag about it it to this day. Indeed, "Charlie Wilson's War" has more to do with gas and oil than spreading democracy. How many times will Americans fall for these distortions? Who paid to arm the radical jihadists in the first place? We provided figher jets to Pakistan and now they have WMD. Fifty years of failed policy there, too. How many military dictaorships has the US sponsored in Pakistan over these fifty years?

Iraq is similar. We are not "spreading democracy" but we are controlling oil and gas and pipeline corridors. It isn't the same thing.

[Fireslayer]

Charlie Wilson, I admit to partying with him across 6th St. from the Driscol in the Steamboat basement, was all about freedom. But then I am no toxicologist so I have nothing further here to report.

As Tom Hank's conjectures touched on, Charlie meant for an aid package that would have forestalled Taliban excesses and the emergence of Al Queda. The Rebpublicrats had a budget to balance and did not report over the funding request. So leave him out of it. And the pipe line that the Bushies I and II later promoted was not in contemplation was not even a pipe dream to him. I never loaded his pipe, so what do I know.

Afghanistan is the illigitamate child of British Imperialism. The problems run deeper than crude. Many ethnicities and tribes are pushed against each other not to mention the Western aims.

Only a policy that recognizes that there is the consesus for Sharia Law in Pashtunistan, the potenial of a modern Kabul & a few selct villages and bergs in the north and the Western agrarian sector still yearning for modern agriculture a la a Marshal Plan to eradicate poppy as sole cash crop ( Charlie wasn't into downer as far as I could tell) has any chance of success. Obama should define select goals around these geo-politacl truths, fund them and then get the f=ck out.

[godsbreath64]

"Sorry, sir, but it's not my fault, you know."

[Hirnlego]

Wait what? When was Obama ever the anti-war candidate?

[godsbreath64]

In our dreams.

[outnow]

The Long War and the "flare-up" theory prevent peace from ever happening, Containment theory was like that also. Speaking softly and carrying a stick and a carrot to effectuate regime change in a full spectrum dominance unipolar world order looks less possible every day. What ever happened to the idea of self-determination?

So long as war activities are so profitable, the wars will continue. Take the profit out of war and you we have peace. Bertolt Brecht's play "Mother Courage" demonstrates that war is good business, especially if you don't count the human costs.

We can always hope that Obama will change the factors of making war so profitable. The US and the UK control 70% of Iraqi oil and the defense contractors made record profits at the expense of the American and Iraqi people. Joseph Stiglitz says that three trillion dollars was spent and will be spent so that we have access and control to Iraqi oil.

[Michael Carmichael - Huffpost Blogger]

Bravo with results thus far, now let's take aim at Afghanistan, a far more dangerous quagmire that has the potential to cause an explosive surge of recruits to Al-Qaida. But, for the meantime, we can bask in the glory of a president with the personal intelligence to make rational decisions when facing adversities.

[ElkoJohn]

now what to do about Iran, North Korea, the Mexican Drug Cartels, Pakistan
African ethnic wars, and the killing of whales by Japan, Norway and Iceland.

[godsbreath64]

Things can go BACK to wrong every sunrise. If you can catch it.

In the binary canary show, this piece blooms garrison realities rather ominously, Tom. Thanks.

The bullets won't stop in our lifetime, or likely not our childrens. Only the alternatives are left.

It IS about Eric and the Holders stopping jihad recruitment BY PROSECUTING Cheney and The minion and the rest of the war troft for the HIGHEST OF CRIMES the US have ever known. No bullet, bomb, or PR could solve more than any ONE arraignment.

Thanks alot, Tom.