End the War in Iraq...just words, just speeches

[KimShady]

When Is an Iraq Withdrawal not a Withdrawal?
When it means leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq to train and fight.

Finding Ways to Stay in Iraq
by Scott Horton

Those who bought into the slogans "Hope" and "Change" last fall should have read the fine print. We were warned. Over and over during the campaign for the presidency Barack Obama made it clear that "withdrawal" from Iraq on his flexible 16-month timetable meant only the removal of "combat forces." He has also made it clear all along that "combat forces" means whatever he wants it to mean – until he decides to change his mind.

At least he's honest.

On Friday, Obama announced in a speech at Camp Lejeune that 16 months have become 18, and that 50,000 soldiers and Marines will be continuing the occupation until 2012 under the guise of training Iraqi army and police forces, "counter-terrorism," and force protection.

No mention was made of the largest embassy one nation has ever built in another, the future use of air power, or the 100,000-plus contractors and mercenaries still inside the country.

These glaring omissions, along with the announced intention to maintain 50,000-plus troops in the country after the summer of 2010, add up to nothing but a ruse, a loophole for mission creep right back to full-blown occupation. Since many of the troops scheduled to leave the country will only be headed off to another war zone in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the entire exercise may end up amounting to nothing but an escalation of the Afghanistan occupation while the door is left wide open for more troops to be sent back into Iraq.

Obama's claim that the mission is now changing from combat to training the Iraqi military to take our soldiers' place ought to be considered no different from George W. Bush's claim, when debuting his "Strategy for Victory" in December 2005, that "as they stand up, we'll stand down." It was a sham to delay leaving then, and it remains so.

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/horton.php?articleid=14340