Operation: New Dawn

[filkertom]

Seven years and five months ago today, the US illegally invaded Iraq. That was called Operation: Iraqi Freedom.

Unless you were watching MSNBC last night, you may not know that the last full US combat brigade left Iraq yesterday, twelve days ahead of schedule. 6,000 more will be leaving by the end of the month, officially ending Operation: Iraqi Freedom and thus ending US combat operations in Iraq.

There will still be 50,000 US troops there, to be reconfigured and rebranded into "advise-and-assist" roles. They are scheduled to leave by the end of 2011.

I'm still holding my breath, but... damn. Damn.

Many kudos to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Richard Engel, who are over there bringing the story first-hand.

Comments

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I do believe many people here doubted Obama's word to end operations in Iraq. It might not have been as quickly as hoped, but it is happening. I hope this will raise hopes he will continue working on his campaign promises.

[lizziecrowe.livejournal.com]

Indeed, let's hope so. He's been a rather stark disappointmentn so far, but this is a good sign and a great step.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

He's got a lot to do and the conservatives are fighting and slandering him every step of the way. I heard in a recent pol 18% of Americans think he's muslim (I guess because he says mulsims have a right to build a community center on their property just like everyone else).

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Obama didn't promise to "end operations."

He promised full withdrawal.

Which we haven't got, and likely are never getting.

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

Anybody know how many mercenaries (Blackwater, etc.) we have over there, and/or will after further Regular Service withdrawals?

[old-fortissimo.livejournal.com]

Kat and I were out celebrating our 14th anniversary, raising one in memory of Al Frank, and did not watch television.

Countdown was recorded but I won't have time to see it until after court today. Thanks for the heads up.

I note from dailyKos that Politifacts now moves this one to Promise Kept status.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Happy anniversary, another raised to Al, and many, many hugs.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Front page story on the NY Times today :)

The beginning of the end

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

Unless you were watching MSNBC last night, you may not know that the last full US combat brigade left Iraq yesterday,

I was watching. When I went to check out the Chicago Tribune's online site, their lead story was speculation about the Blago retrial. Tells you what they think is important, doesn't it?

I say it's about frickin' time. As you said, we illegally invaded Iraq - it and the subsequent occupation have resulted in more American deaths than September 11th and cost us, as a country, not just billions of dollars but many fundamental freedoms that the Bush administration said we needed to give up in the interests of "safety". Think of what we could have done with all the money that was given to Blackwater if we'd spent it on education or infrastructure.

[poly-scott.livejournal.com]

I'm confused. I have two questions:

#1: Invading Iraq was stupid, but how was it illegal?

#2: If it was illegal, why are we not going after Bush and Cheney, et. al. for the invasion? Other than Denis Kucinich's grandstanding, I haven't seen anyone take any step toward doing that. Note: I voted for Kucinich, largely because of that grandstanding.

I just don't understand how it was illegal, I'm not a republican, and I'm not arguing in favor of it, so send all flames and snark to /dev/null please, and thank you.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

1: As I understand it, the allegation is that the administration lied to Congress to get the authorization.

2: Politics.

[poly-scott.livejournal.com]

1: So, wouldn't that mean the lying was illegal, not the war?

[alverant.livejournal.com]

#2 If you start going after the previous administration for their criminal acts, it will:
1) Enrage their supporters and spawn bogus claims of persecution
2) Make the next republican President (which will happen eventually) want to get revenge and republics aren't above making phony charges out of partisanship.
3) It hasn't been done before, granted no administration has been as criminal as W's but how often in US history has a sitting President prosecuted the previous one for their actions while in office?
4) I think there's some law giving a president a large degree of immunity when it comes to answering for their actions.

[poly-scott.livejournal.com]

3) It hasn't been done before, granted no administration has been as criminal as W's but how often in US history has a sitting President prosecuted the previous one for their actions while in office?

Nixon. Nixon was offered a choice - resign, or face a trial in the Senate. He was basically told the votes were there, and that he would go down. He did the right thing, and resigned.

4) I think there's some law giving a president a large degree of immunity when it comes to answering for their actions.

Not exactly. The only authority that can really hold the POTUS accountable (this is the VERY short version) is the Congress. If the House votes to impeach, then a trial is held in the Senate. There are specific exceptions. Lying to congress to gain authorization for a war would not be one of those exceptions.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

Under international law it is illegal to wage an offensive war. You can invade another country as a preemptive strike if you have reason to believe they are about to attack you or in support of an attacked third party but you made my dad look stupid for not doing this properly the first time is so not a good reason.

Of course neither Bush nor, in my country, Blair will ever stand trial for anything.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

I stumbled on MSNBC's coverage, catching the end of the repeat of Keith's show last night. I was totally transfixed by it. I'm old enough to remember (too well) the U.S. "withdrawal" from Vietnam. It was wonderful to see such a purposeful, orderly movement of our troops out of Iraq.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

There's still 50,000 soldiers in Iraq, fully armed and ready for combat at a moment's notice. The fact that their ostensible mission is training and advisory only cuts no ice- remember how much combat our "advisors" saw in Vietnam from 1961-64 and 1971-73.

Last night was smoke and mirrors in my book- engineered by an Obama White House trying to keep troops in Iraq and, at the same time, claim that the war is over.

[poly-scott.livejournal.com]

I'm curious: Do you have a working knowledge of how modern US troop deployment works?

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Very little, to be honest. I know that modern armies have truly enormous logistical needs- "tails" is one term I've seen, and that it's just not feasible for an army to march out with everything packed on the soldiers' backs.

But I fail to see how "modern US troop deployment" has anything to do with my point. We have 50,000 troops acting as military advisors and trainers. By the admission of the White House, this force is fully armed and prepared to be a "first reaction" force, i. e. combat forces, should either the Iraqi government or the President order their deployment.

And 50,000 > 0.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm still holding my breath too. But... one hell of a big step.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

It's not perfect, but it's progress. I found these figures on casualties in Iraq. Here's the summary:

Coalition Military Fatalities By Year
Year US UK Other Total
2003 486 53 41 580
2004 849 22 35 906
2005 846 23 28 897
2006 822 29 21 872
2007 904 47 10 961
2008 314 4 4 322
2009 149 1 0 150
2010 45 0 0 45
Total 4415 179 139 4733

[knightwork.livejournal.com]

See the March 24, 2003 White House press briefing - Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL), was the original title of this clusterfrack. If you want to go all tin foil, you could point a finger at the 2001 Energy Task Force, and its chairman, Vice President Dick Cheney, as the true start of the misadventure, but I'm not going there...

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

I don't think the war was over oil. Sadam would have welcomed US and UK investment and sold us oil if we promised go back to propping up his dictatorship.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Personally I'm glad we're getting out of Iraq. It's long overdue. Now if someone can just define what "victory in Afganistan" means we'll be closer to a solution there too.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

As long as it involves something like the phrase, "Osamma bin Laden's head on a pike".