With U.S. troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq at the end of next month, the question Americans need answered is what almost eight years of war there by American troops has accomplished.
Vice President Joe Biden made his fifth trip to Iraq early this month, once again trying to persuade leaders of various parties to collaborate in forming a new government.
The government we fought with, and American troops died doing so in a joint effort, deserve to know whether the leader of the country we supported, costing over 4,000 American deaths and over 30,000 wounded, is to continue to lead the country—Nouri al-Maliki.
His party, and allied parties, won fewer seats in the Iraq parliament than backers of Ayad Allawi. And for four months now the various factions have been deadlocked, with the designation of the new prime minister undetermined.
Meanwhile, bombings continue and Washington insists U.S. troop withdrawals will be on schedule at the end of August. But this announcement is deceiving.
We now have 80,000 American soldiers in this small Muslim country, who probably never should have been sent there.
The U.S. invasion of this Muslim nation was an unforgivable tragedy—for Christians, numbered over a million, living in Iraq, a country of less than 20 million.
Some 600,000 Christians fled the country because of the reaction of Muslims to a Christian invasion. Thousands were killed and tens of thousands lost all their possessions. We hear little about this in our glamorized publicity about a U.S. victory and the sacrifice of Americans (hopefully for a permanent, meaningful victory).
As to the much-publicized troop withdrawal, it’s importance and significance is overrated. We are only going to bring home, now, 30,000 Americans, leaving far more, 50,000, remaining in Iraq. This proves we know the war there is not a permanent victory, as bombings continue and the deadlock over formation of a new government continues.
And since we recently added 30,000 troops to our forces fighting another highly questionable war in Afghanistan, the number of Americans ordered to fight wars in these two Muslim countries remains the same. As suicides among our soldiers increase and Americans are facing reductions in government job programs, and even mail service—for lack of money—Americans continue to die in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, with June claiming the highest number of monthly American deaths in the entire eight plus years of war in Afghanistan, possibly a worse gamble than Iraq.
These two gambles are costing an estimated $200 billion dollars a year!
Iraq Verdict — Looking at Washington
Vice President Joe Biden made his fifth trip to Iraq early this month, once again trying to persuade leaders of various parties to collaborate in forming a new government.
The government we fought with, and American troops died doing so in a joint effort, deserve to know whether the leader of the country we supported, costing over 4,000 American deaths and over 30,000 wounded, is to continue to lead the country—Nouri al-Maliki.
His party, and allied parties, won fewer seats in the Iraq parliament than backers of Ayad Allawi. And for four months now the various factions have been deadlocked, with the designation of the new prime minister undetermined.
Meanwhile, bombings continue and Washington insists U.S. troop withdrawals will be on schedule at the end of August. But this announcement is deceiving.
We now have 80,000 American soldiers in this small Muslim country, who probably never should have been sent there.
The U.S. invasion of this Muslim nation was an unforgivable tragedy—for Christians, numbered over a million, living in Iraq, a country of less than 20 million.
Some 600,000 Christians fled the country because of the reaction of Muslims to a Christian invasion. Thousands were killed and tens of thousands lost all their possessions. We hear little about this in our glamorized publicity about a U.S. victory and the sacrifice of Americans (hopefully for a permanent, meaningful victory).
As to the much-publicized troop withdrawal, it’s importance and significance is overrated. We are only going to bring home, now, 30,000 Americans, leaving far more, 50,000, remaining in Iraq. This proves we know the war there is not a permanent victory, as bombings continue and the deadlock over formation of a new government continues.
And since we recently added 30,000 troops to our forces fighting another highly questionable war in Afghanistan, the number of Americans ordered to fight wars in these two Muslim countries remains the same. As suicides among our soldiers increase and Americans are facing reductions in government job programs, and even mail service—for lack of money—Americans continue to die in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, with June claiming the highest number of monthly American deaths in the entire eight plus years of war in Afghanistan, possibly a worse gamble than Iraq.
These two gambles are costing an estimated $200 billion dollars a year!