Whimper

Conditions: Cold, still

The End

After all these years, the end has apparently finally come. The Iraq war, the war that will define for our generation as the moment that we threw off the mistakes of our fathers and chose to make our own mistakes, all over again, is finally coming to an end. Or at least, coming to the part where the troops start pulling out.

BAGHDAD: Iraqis danced in the streets when US troops withdrew from their cities a little more than a year ago. After the last American combat brigade trundled across the border into Kuwait on Thursday, reversing a journey that began more than seven years ago, there was no rejoicing.

Instead, a mood of deep apprehension tinged with bitterness is taking hold as Iraqis digest the reality that the American invaders who they once feared would stay forever are in fact going home - at a time when their country is in the throes of a political crisis that many think could become more violent.
[...]

US combat operations in Iraq will not officially end until August 31, the deadline set by Barack Obama for the reduction of the force to 50,000 people involved in ''stability operations''.

But with the departure to Kuwait of the last combat brigade, the formal battle mission is essentially over. In the coming days, 2000 more personnel from units scattered around the country will leave, bringing the number remaining down to the 50,000 promised by the President.
[...]

But many Iraqis worry that the time is wrong for a drawdown whose date was a result of Mr Obama's campaign promise to bring troops home. Parliamentary elections in March that were supposed to cement Iraq's fledgling democracy have instead triggered a destabilising political stand-off between ethnic-tinged factions that received roughly similar numbers of votes and cannot agree on who should be in charge.

Call me old fashioned, but I do believe in the principle that if you break it, you buy it. This was one of the principles held over the long-departed Bush regime at the dawn of the Iraq war, and here we are seven years later. Lets not forget the simple point that Iraq hadn't actually done anything to justify the invasion and subsequent slaughter. So is Iraq still broken? Or has it gotten to the point where we don't really remember the difference?

A rash of attacks on judges, traffic police, senior civil servants and members of the Iraqi security forces has stirred fears that insurgents are more ubiquitous than had been thought. A suicide bombing in Baghdad against army recruits on Tuesday, in which 63 people died, called into question the Iraqi security forces' ability to take care of its own, let alone the safety of ordinary citizens.

- smh.com.au/

Maybe the key is to trash the entire store, that way you can break whatever you want and no one can tell the difference.

Sadly, I don't believe anything will really come of all this mass stupidity and carnage. The architects have already long ago received their rewards and scuttled away out of the limelight. All that's left is the wreckage, which inevitably over time (approximately seven years of time) molds itself into the background clutter and becomes scenery.

So all that's left is the tradiional declaration of victory, the speeches about hope, and the distribution of medals. I guess it's now mostly in the hands of the historians. God help us all.


More:
Five Myths about Iraq troop withdrawal


- Peace out