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Farewell to Iraq, but No Talk of Mission Accomplished
President avoids triumphalism of his predecessor during televised speech
Barack Obama last night brought down a curtain on the long, costly and inconclusive war in Iraq, but amid near indifference from a country now worried about the economy to the exclusion of virtually all else.
An Iraqi man and his wife watch U.S. President Barack Obama's televised speech in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) "It is time to turn the page," the President declared in a prime-time address from the Oval Office - only the second of its kind since he took power in January 2009. "Ending this war is not only in Iraq's interest, it is in our own," he argued. "The United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people."
The 15-minute speech marked a historic moment, the departure from Iraq of the last US combat forces after a seven-and-a-half-year conflict, costing some $900bn (£585bn), in which 1.5 million US troops have served and more than 4,400 were killed.
But there was no boasting from either the President or his aides of a "Mission Accomplished", as proclaimed by the fateful banner behind George W Bush, Mr Obama's predecessor, when he prematurely announced military victory from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in May 2003.
"It's not going to be a victory lap. It's not going to be self-congratulatory. There's still a lot of work that we've got to do to make sure that Iraq is an effective partner with us," Mr Obama said earlier at the US army base at Fort Bliss in Texas, where he met some of the last combat units to return from Iraq.
The administration is acutely aware of the latest resurgence of violence in Iraq, and of the political deadlock that has prevented the formation of a new Iraqi government since the stalemated general election in March.
Indeed, as Mr Obama delivered his address, Vice-President Joe Biden was in Baghdad, ostensibly for a "change of mission" ceremony but above all to put new pressure on Iraq's leaders to settle their differences.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki proclaimed Iraq's "independence" in a television address yesterday. "Our security forces will take the lead in ensuring security and safeguarding the country and removing all threats that the country has to weather, internally or externally," Mr Maliki said.
Even with combat troops gone, and 2003's "Operation Iraqi Freedom" replaced by "Operation New Dawn," 50,000 US soldiers will remain - some to conduct counterterrorism operations against a still threatening al-Qa'ida organisation in Iraq, but mainly to train Iraqi forces to take full charge of the country's security. In theory, that moment will arrive in 16 months when the last of the hold-over force is scheduled to leave. By the end of next year, all of our troops will be home," the President re-iterated in his regular weekly radio address last Saturday.
However doubts are widespread whether this deadline can be met - not just among Iraqi politicians fearful that a complete US departure will leave a dangerous security vacuum, but also among Iraq specialists here who believe that, like it or not, Washington will be entangled in Iraq for years.
"The US may be announcing the 'withdrawal' of its combat forces," Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for International and Strategic Studies think- tank, said yesterday. "The fact is though that the US withdrawal is far from over, the Iraq war is not over, it is not 'won,' and any form of stable end state in Iraq is probably impossible before 2020," he warned.
Even so, the President insisted last night that by ending America's combat mission, he was fulfilling a key campaign pledge, to end a war he opposed from the outset, even before Mr Bush launched the US-led invasion in March 2003. His challenge now is to secure some credit from this achievement, not only domestically, but in a Muslim world increasingly disillusioned with him.
At home, Iraq may be winding down, but the even more protracted war in Afghanistan intensifies. Most important, the stumbling economy and the worsening jobs market are now virtually the only things that matter to US voters, who are set to give Mr Obama's Democrats a drubbing in November's mid-term Congressional elections.
In his prime-time speech, the President acknowledged as much. "Today, our most urgent task is to restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work," he said, according to excerpts of the address released beforehand by the White House.
For Mr Obama's audience in the Arab world meanwhile, the pull-out of combat troops from Iraq must be set against his failure to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and the lack of progress in the Middle East.
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Show AllObama claims that "the United States has paid a huge price in Iraq..." while conveniently neglecting to mention that the Iraqis, with over a million of them having been killed since the U.S. invaded their country and about 4 million of their countrymen having been displaced from their homes, have paid a far greater price than the Americans have with Obama dismissively stating that it is "time to turn the page" regarding Iraq. Unfortunately the families of those Iraqis who have felt the brutalization of the U.S. war machine cannot, despite Obama's claim, simply turn the page and pretend that their loved ones are still with them.
"Farewell to Iraq"?
I heard that guy and his speeech. Now I hate him for his mendacity, and I really felt it while looking at his straight face as he uttered: US forces "took out terrorist leaders". Except there were no terrorists in Iraq until US forces got there. Most of the "terrorists" in Iraq were "resistance-fighters" trying to defend their country. Wouldn't you somehow?
"Iraqi forces have taken the fight TO Al-Qaeda, eliminating much of its leadership in Iraqi-led operations". - Except there were no Al-Qaeda in Iraq until the US-led invasion. Obama's simply continuing Bush's lies that Al-Qaeda was somehow a reason for invading Iraq. Pure lie.
Obama is now disgusting. But his lies are wearing so thin it must be a matter of time before something gives.
As my last comment was taken off, ill say it again. Why is CD posting this crap. Its orwellian doublespeak and thats all.
Your aim is true, firing ...
Nothing has ended. Particularly not the flow of U.S. taxpayer dollars into occupation of the country, the U.S. imperial hand on the tiller of Iraq's "sovereignty", nor the suffering of the Iraqi people.
This is "Mission Accomplished" without the carrier landing and codpiece. The U.S. mission in Iraq will end when it enjoys its Saigon moment -- complete with helicopters lifting off the embassy roof as collaborators cling to the struts.
We completely agree.
Just one corrective, if I may: "lifting off the embassy's twenty-one roofs."
I think its always good to know what Obama's liars and apologists are saying. CD is generally pretty good about not tampering with comments, in my opinion. (I wonder what you wrote?)
As long as there is a 21-building strong U.S. fortress embassy in Baghdad and huge U.S. military bases on Iraqi territory, Iraq will not be an autonomous, self-determining nation. Contrary to what Obama's metaphor might lead one to believe, there is no turning of the page.
As long as there are four million Iraqis displaced from their homes (either as internal or external refugees), there is no turning of the page, certainly not for the Iraqis.
As for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, if not the one million Iraqis, who have been massacred in this dreadful occupation of their homeland, may they be a nightmare on the United States that will haunt it and poison its nights and days forever.
There is no turning of the page, Oilbomber, you repulsive hypocrite, liar, double-speaker, war criminal, and servile keeper of Empire.
Now that my credit cards are maxed out, my new car has been repo'd, the house I bought in 2003 is in foreclosure, my 401K has tanked, and I lost my job and unemployment benefits 2 months ago: can I now be unpatriotic and end the cruel demands of Empire? Seriously, is it alright to " stop going shopping " and will this sacrifice label me forever as a citizen " who was against us and for them ? ". Dear God, I hope not.
Headline on CNN.com: "U.S. hands over power in Iraq"
Does that mean they will get more than a few hours of electricity again?
" It is time to turn the page ". What an abomination by the obomber this statement is! The consummate con mans MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Nothing has changed... just different BS rhetoric. The only page Obama turns is the one in the book sent to him by the Pentagon.
The 'war' in Iraq was designed to 'never end.'
The scar cannot be healed, it is irreparable, the damage too great, too unconscionable. The occupier intends to 'stay,' one way or another, until time itself grows old: To wit: Korea and Japan.
Similarly, the American 'residue,' the 'aftermath,' of the war in Vietnam continues ceaselessly, continuously with an almost radioactive 'afterlife' now nearly 50 years later in Laos, killing with an obscene impunity.
See the astonishing article by Melody Benson, "The Casualties of Cluster Bombs Must Not Be Forgotten."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/30-4, a truly revelatory piece that chills the spirit, but simultaneously carves a space in the mind for what must be done to rectify the atrocity.
America, the gift that keeps on giving, the gift of blood, in perpetuity.
And how can the war in Iraq (occupation) end until the odious 'Green Zone' is razed to the ground, the oil 'leases' coerced by imperial capital are rescinded and re-nationalized, the millions of displaced by the savagery repatriated, and the monstrous American embassy recedes, vanishes in ignominy, into the desert sands?
The Iraq war cannot end until there is justice for the perpetrators.
What will it take to countenance that?
"A thousand accidents may and well interpose a veil between our present consciousness and the secret inscriptions of the mind; accidents of the same sort will also rend away this veil; but whether veiled or unveiled, the inscription remains forever; just as the stars seem to withdraw before the common light of day; whereas in fact we all know that it is the light which is drawn over them as a veil, and that they are waiting to be revealed when the obscuring daylight shall have withdrawn."
–(Thomas De Quincey-"Confessions Of An English Opium Eater."
So true and very well said!
I love the quotation from De Quincey -- very nice!
Regarding the deadly afterlife of Amerikkka's savaging of other lands, see the first full length study (in French only) of the continuing devastating effects of agent orange on the Vietnamese people: André Bouny, "Agent Orange, Apocalypse Viêt Nam" (Paris: Editions Demi Lune, 2010), prefaced by Howard Zinn. The pictures of horrible bodily malformations in the book are painful to behold.
talk about orwellian double-speak come true -
there are still over 50,000 troops and over 100,000 contractors in iraq.....
the troops are still going out on raids- albeit w/ iraqi troops -
the air force is still conducting bombing raids
and after the last election in iraq in march - a government STILL HAS NOT BEEN FORMED!
iran has been made even more powerful -
where there was no al-qaida now there is....
all for a cost of well over 1 trillion dollars
ALL BASED ON LIES! and obomber calls bush - the war criminal - to thank him for his leadership and commitment.
How's that hopey changey thing working out for you now?
"...obomber calls bush - the war criminal - to thank him for his leadership and commitment..."
With the next election(s) in mind, me thinks he's simply sending a message to republicans and conservative independent voters, that he's one of them.
By all accounts he is.
"By the end of next year, all of our troops will be home," the President re-iterated . . .
In the words of the Egyptian curse: "Drink seawater", you Liar!
Perhaps we have to wind it down slowly because Mrkn mercenary thugs haven't yet had their fill of raping girls, sodomizing detainees, and giggling while shooting up vans from helicopters.
Obama give's new meaning to the word "mendacity." In fact in this respect, Obama is the gift that keeps on giving.
Let me repeat, there are quite a lot of Marines left in Iraq and no matter the designation, every single Marine is a combat soldier. Also I am reliably informed that quite a number of transfers were accomplished from combat units to the non-combat units being left behind.
He who believes we have no combat troops left in Iraq lives in fantasy inspired by "hope and change"
Catapault that propaganda !
Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel are unfortunately quagmires largely of America's own making and it seems that the United States unwillingness to pull-out will result in something far worse, defeat. Whatever the reason for these conflicts might have been, nobody can remember it. No good is being done and the American public has given up on the whole charade anyway. It seems that America is losing an empire and is unwilling to find a new role. My greatest fear is that the United States, embroiling itself in problems of the Middle East (problems largely of its own making), has resulted in the bringing home of the terrible contagion of corruption, a contagion which has infected the body politic, and a contagion from which the patient may not recover.
The Middle East has plenty of problems of its own and as many will find out soon enough, most are self made at this point.
When was the last time we "won" a war? You have to go back 65 years. WWII was the last time we rerally had a justifiable reason to fight. This not to diminish the valor of the troops in any of the wars since, it's just an accusation that they were led into some unwise conflicts by less than creative statesmen who in many cases had questionable motives for their actions.