Thursday, August 19, 2010

Our long national nightmare is half over.

One of our two wars, the one in Iraq, is officially over. Of course, this is the war that has been "officially over" so many times it's not even funny, but this time the announcement comes accompanied with the sight of American vehicles trundling across the Kuwaiti border 50,000 servicemembers will remain in Iraq for "Operation New Dawn", which is what the military is calling the attempt at training Iraq's military and police forces.

Whether we won or lost the war is a question I will leave to military historians. And, of course, this isn't an ideal situation- I'd much rather see every American out of both Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow. However, this is a sign that things are moving in the right direction, and a victory for those of us who seek peace.

I look forward to next summer, when President Obama has promised that the same sights will come out of Afghanistan.

2 comments:

Chewie said...

I'm not considering it over until the last soldier is out. Hell, we've still got bases in Germany and Japan.

I think it will be over when all U.S. soldiers are out of Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. military spending returns to pre-9/11 levels (which is hundreds of billions less per year).

Of course, that's assuming we don't start another war before then. It's a gloomy outlook, I know, but I think the important thing is to stay vigilant against any future aggression.

Allie Cat said...

Chewie- I'm with you. I want them all home yesterday, and I want to stop spending $1 trillion a year on our military. Imagine what we could do with even half that for other national priorities!

Unfortunately, it seems that the only thing the two major parties can agree on is spending more money on the military.