D-Day plus ten years

Ten years to the day after the invasion of Iraq, I wish that it looked like the political establishment had actually learned any lessons from the debacle.

Earlier today, I read quite an impassioned accusation of the previous administration by a veteran who will soon have given his life for his country.  It's very much worth a read (and some reflection on how we got here).

Oh, when the tanks, come rollin' home, oh when...

I must admit to having rather mixed feelings about the recent news that the troops in Iraq are, in fact, coming home. I'm very glad for that (and for the troops themselves, especially), and have wanted it to happen for nine years or so, now. And I'm pretty surprised, because, despite Obama's campaign promises, I didn't really expect it to happen. But I also feel some cynicism because of the large number of State Department-led people (some of whom would be hard to classify as anything other than troops) who are remaining indefinitely.

I guess the most important part is to remember that it is a significant step forward. And it will greatly help the budget situation as well, because the State Department's whole budget for Iraq is only (HAH!) $5B.

So let's applaud this for what it is, and continue to hope for a complete pull-out, as well as a complete pull-out from Afghanistan.

Finally Leaving?

Obama announced today that all combat troops are going to be out of Iraq by the end of the month (ie: on schedule).

This really shouldn't be a big deal, but I'm fairly excited about it.

Finally, an explicit acknowledgment that nothing good is going to come out of staying. Of course, there's a lot of support troops still there for quite a while. And who knows how long sizable numbers of contractors (excuse me, "security guards") will stay.

As I said, it shouldn't be a big deal. But it is.

Of course, the downside potential problem is that if the pull-out doesn't continue on schedule, then we lose even more credibility with those in the middle east who are worried that we're never going anywhere. And that we went in just for oil. And that we're going to keep it.

That would be the melting pot of potential terrorist recruits. We really don't want to give them reason to remove the "potential" from the description of themselves.

I wonder how many politicians recognize (and care about; I'm sure at least some of them don't care) that last problem. I'd bet that it's a very small number (microscopic within the GOP, I'm sure). I'm also sure that Lieberman would not be among those seeing it.