Who could have predicted this?
Well, besides anyone who didn’t want the United States to lose the war in Iraq because of purely partisan reasons;
The story is at Stars & Stripes;
Two bombs and a rocket attack struck the Iraqi capital on Monday, just weeks before the final pullout of American forces from the country.
The explosions brought to 100 the number of people killed in the capital so far in November, up from 62 in October.
So maybe a timetable withdrawal wasn’t such a good idea…but we’ve been telling the Leftists that for eight years, haven’t we?
Category: Antiwar crowd, Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War
It wouldn’t have mattered how long we were in Iraq. there would always have been violence when we withdrew. But then we have been telling those whio haven’t studied history that for ten years.
I am only surprised that Sec. Clinton hasn’t bailed yet. I predicted that she would see the handwriting on the wall that DoS couldn’t possibly succeed with minimal DoD support, and, in order to maintain some kind of foreign affairs credibility, would step down as secretary before the inevitable feces hit the rotating blades.
It’s not nearly just the lefties, as you quite conveniently try to explain. Timetables are meaningless to those who live there.
The Iraqis have proven they can take care of business when they want to, and the ‘Anbar Awakening’ is proof of that. This may be more of a last minute elbowing match for territory, resources, and fractions more power before we’re out of there.
@3. “Timetables are meaningless to those who live there.” Really? So, if that’s true neither the security forces nor those itching to blow-up the date cart care when we leave. I guess you just, what, pull these statements out of your butt?
There is no way a civilian has the capacity to understand “train to standard, not to time.” Most civilians go to their jobs and do enough work to not get fired. Everything over here has been thrown together over the past 5 months. DoS is more worried about their CHU’s getting cable than force protection. The Iraqis are not ready, DoS thinks it’s all fun and games… It’s going to be a shit show.
@5 – ” I guess you just, what, pull these statements out of your butt?”
You mean like your statement?
The guys blowing stuff don’t give a rats ass when we leave…they always knew we were leaving at some point. Add to that the fact that some of the guys itching to blow stuff up and the security forces are one and the same.
Damn this moving to different workstations…..
@ 7 was me.
#6, I can understand your frustration. On the other hand if the Iraqi government agreed with that assessment, they wouldn’t have refused to negotiate a SOFA that didn’t leave you exposed.
They began killing each other over what part of sand they had 1,000 years ago. They began killing each other over what part of Islam they followed 500 years ago. They began killing each other over who had the most oil 100 years ago. They began killing each other over who they allied with 50 years ago. They began killing each other over whose laws they wanted to follow 10 years ago.
Who are we to step in and try to tell them not to kill each other when they have been doing so before America was even discovered?
“The guys blowing stuff … always knew we were leaving at some point”?
Perhaps, but have we ever known that?
We have soldiers in Korea whose great-grandfathers could theoretically have served there.
Ditto for Germany and Japan — except make that great-great grandfathers.
Three propserpous, technologically-advanced nations who could completely provide for their own defense.
Here Sen. McCain speaks frankly about what he viewed as our “timetable” for Iraq.
Frank:
Most of that argument is a ‘nother can of worms. However, yes we have done it before. We have no troops in Vietnam, France, Somalia, Saudi Arabia or a dozen South American nations today. Occupations are tricky things to pull off. Generally, it takes a body count of 50 friendly to every 1 enemy, a minimum of 50 years and the presence of an external threat.
When each of the occupations you describe began, there was an external threat from the Soviet Union. The exception is South Korea where we are still technically at war.
Iraq never saw an external threat that was greater than us. There is, of course a lot of sabre rattle coming from Iran, but Iraq largely sees Iran as an ally. The security forces can handle the internal threat. Let’s also not forget that the reason we are leaving now, campaign promises aside, is because the Iraqi government refused to negotiate a responsible SOFA that would not expose our troops to criminal charges for carrying our their duties in Iraq.
Frank: a couple of problems with your thought process 1). you’re forgetting “forward deployed” abilities which allow us to have moderate amounts of forces on-hand almost anywhere in the world in less than a day. This is why bases are maintained in Germany and Japan, not that we still consider them a threat. 2). N. Korea IS a threat, and while I think it is highly unlikely that they will pour forth like they did in 1950, its enough of a possibility that we do want troops there. 3). You know WWII ended in 1945 and Korea 1953. I don’t think 8 years constitutes a whole generation. If you had a child born in 1939 (the official start of WWII) then they would be 14 at the end of the Korean war, and while some folks did lie on their enlistment forms most 14 YOs are easy to spot. 4). there was never going to be a permanent force there. Congress even passed a law that no permanent buildings could be built on FOBs (which rather ironically added to the waste of the whole campaign), and while this might seem a minor detail, that is not something you’d want if you were going to stay there for another decade. I don’t see trying to have a permanent brigade living out of CHUs and not actual barracks. Do you? 5). lastly, how demoralizing will it be, not only to our military, but to the nation if what we do there doesn’t last at least as long as we were there. I’m fine with it falling apart 20 or 30 years down the road (they are fighting their own entrenched culture after all) but I’m not even close to fine if in 2 or 3 years the country descends into one mass cluster-fuck. What would that say about us? What would we say to the widows and family members of the 6K+ KIA, and the scores more WIA? What about those that struggle with the uncertainty, that we have now labeled under the blanket title “PTSD” Do we say “thanks for all… Read more »