IRAQ: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED OR MISSION DENIAL.

By


Joseph Chez

August 31, 2010

This day marks the official end of U.S. combat involvement in Iraq, but is it over – and, was it necessary?

President Obama will go before the nation on national TV today and attempt to summarize the beginning and the end of war hostilities in Iraq. However, he will walk a fine line in not taking credit for a perceived success, but he will also not excuse the nation for a historic blunder in having invaded a sovereign nation under the guise of national security when in fact, such nation had nothing to do with the attack on U.S. soil on 9-11.

However, Republicans on the political right are openly taking credit for the war with Iraq and further reinvigorate their previous claims of Iraq having posed a direct and imminent threat against our national security. And yet, history has noted the blunder of such war against Iraq, a war which was premeditated and justified with distorted facts and dishonorable acts. Today, neo-cons will call it a “conservative victory” in Iraq, despite the dishonest reasons for the war.

So yes, the Republicans should be allowed to take credit for the blundering international piracy and discredit to our nation. They should take credit for the 4, 220 US soldiers killed in the war, plus, the 31,911 soldiers injured.

On the other hand, President Obama has done little to change the course of hostilities in the Middle East and in fact, continued what President Bush started. So, can he take credit in this drawdown of forces in Iraq, or should he also be an accomplice to the deceit of the war. I therefore argue that despite the drawdown President Obama must also take blame for taking the baton from former President Bush and having pursued the same failed policy, in like-manner and with the same fervor.

And yet, today President Obama will carefully muddle through, in explaining that U.S. involvement in Iraq is coming to a close. But, is it? No it is not. Fifty Thousand US troops will still remain in Iraq under the guise of being non-combat forces. Furthermore, we leave behind a behemoth US presence in that country, from private security forces, to the biggest US embassy ever built anywhere in the world. We also leave a government which is simply not Iraqi home-grown, but is a carefully planted cadre of Iraqi officials who were carefully seeded by the U.S. Government.

Thus, what may be perceived as an end of US involvement in Iraq, it is not! While neo-cons in this country see a victory, is it not. How can anybody make a claim that while we invaded the wrong country, oops, we continued until we vanquished? And after 7 years of war, casualties in Iraq continue with no end in sight. It seem to me that we are making it look like a win, when in reality, we are leaving Iraq quietly and without fanfare – because, it was a big blunder from the beginning and, we leave a country in disarray and ripe for political and sectarian conflict. Regrettably, we also leave a country whith a military that was trained by the US, but sadly, will in the future; pose a bigger security problem regionally and against US security interest.

The truth Mr. President…………