Sgygus: Unless Iraq is planning an imminent attack upon this country, I think leaving them to their own devices is a good policy.

This

St_Francis_P: Haven't we "helped" them enough?

And this.

Can't say I care.

If this is the case, I agree with Obama. Putting American troops between the various factions is a good way for all the factions to unite -- and target us. Forget that. Let them work it out themselves.

/Don't think I give the Bush Administration a pass on this pile of crap they passed to the next administration. On behalf of the United States, Iraqi men and women, I'm really sorry we broke your country. I sincerely wish you the best of luck working out your sectarian differences. I just hope our government has learned it's lesson about invading other countries, like Iran.

Military troops, no...
... but how many mercenaries and private troops are over there on our dime? There are tons of "private contractors" - e.g. Blackwater Xi Academi troops - in place, and their numbers have been increasing with every soldier brought home. Obama is working on privatizing the military, just as his predecessors did.

Call it whatever you want. At some point you need to stop doubling down on a mistake, and we have far, far better things to spend the next trillion on than hurting people to enrich contractors.

CanisNoir: I'll not harp on him too much for this decision, it is a conundrum to say the least. If we go back in there it will telegraph to the world that he was inept in the first place for sticking with the time line and not fighting harder to stay the course there.

I'm sure moving up the timeline 2 and a half weeks was what screwed the pooch, animal/color troll.

God, I'll be glad when Rush and Glenn get back from their vacations. You guys suck at creating talking points when left to your own imaginations.

Weaver95: the GOP has found itself in a strange place. they have to actually support dictators and violent thugs in order to win a propaganda war against Obama.

You have to forgive them, they haven't updated their rhetoric since the Cold War...nor needed to, given the majority of their base remembers it well enough to have a Pavlovian reaction to it, and they've managed after 9/11 to program a whole new generation of "young republicans" to respond to it as well.

CanisNoir: Weaver95: i'm sorry but...we're done. there's nothing more we can do in Iraq. so why even TRY to make it a talking point?

I'm not, or did you mistakenly ignore the entire first half of my initial post where I said I wasn't going to harp on Obama for not going back into Iraq? I think you must have.

and then you went right into "we should have liberated the Iranian people like we did Libya" when you know yourself that is a whole different ballgame with a whole other set of problems. Libya was accomplished with very little investment on our side. Some air support and logistical assistance. Iran would have taken more of an economic and military investment than Iraq and Afghanistan together. Overthrowing Iran externally would put us at odds with China and Russia and might even involve N. Korea. it would have made oil prices shoot through the roof. And it would probably turned the pro western young people against us and de-legitimized their movement.

This whole idea of overthrowing regimes and replacing them through invasion and occupation is flawed,expensive and the outcome is never guaranteed. Libya is a good example of letting it happen internally and then provide some support to them. Iran is close to the tipping point. but it's not ready just quite yet. maybe one more rigged election will be the catalyst. But I still think we should take a backseat and let the people do this themselves.

It's not abandonment if they kick your ass out of their house for throwing wild parties for a decade straight.

I think the place was going to implode as soon as we left no matter how long we stayed there. I'm glad we're finally pulling out (mostly) and I hope it actually stays that way.

Subby's idea of supporting the troops is putting them back INTO the firing line.

Weaver95: well start pondering your strategy now because the GOP shills will be back in force (and greater numbers) as we get closer to the next election cycle.

Like Tusken Raiders?

Anyway, we've done more than enough damage there. WAY more than enough.

Biological Ali: abb3w: Weaver95: nope. But Iraqi blood = ink for the GOP propaganda machine. expect to hear a lot of stories about us 'abandoning' Iraq and 'cut and run' will probably be a popular soundbyte for early 2012.

The easy counter would seem to be asking why they aren't willing to raise taxes to fund the much harder problem of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan will pay for itself, once they get the opium farms running again.

Didn't they start running again almost 10 years ago?

/yeah, I know you were joking.

What a stupid headline..

Good!

fark these people!

The Drawing Board: Good!

fark these people!

We did that when we invaded and occupied them for no good reason.