President Obama has announced our troops will be out of Iraq by Christmas, and we should all rejoice. Now, if we could get him to make the same command decision about Afghanistan...
Heritage laments this development, worrying that it "might jeopardize the progress that has been made in Iraq." I worry about that too, but Iraq is a sovereign country and they've asked us to leave. We have tired of one another, as the quiet collapse of talks to keep troops there has testified. They want to take the training wheels off, and we have no choice but to comply.
CATO has the better take...
DoD's Army Moves Out, State Department's Army Moves In
I read in Wired that the State Department will fill the vacuum with a private army of 5,500 security contractors at a cost of over $3 billion! I ask, it it worth it?
It's a sign of trouble that the State Department needs its own private army. How can you build goodwill traveling around in armored convoys? With all that firepower, international incidents will happen, innocent Iraqis will be killed, and the populace will be screaming for blood. No diplomatic immunity for the security contractors, so we will simply allow the accused to sneak out of the country, adding more fuel to the fire.
Why do we need such a large State Department presence there? Iraq has no special value to us, there are no warm cultural affinities. Why the fortress in Baghdad? Why all the consulates polkadotting a hostile land providing targets for violent hatred?
We should put a small embassy among the others in Baghdad, and put a consulate up in Kurdistan and hire the Pesh Merga to guard it, which is what we do in many other countries.
Bloomberg - Will Troops Leave Iraq Better Off?
Heritage laments this development, worrying that it "might jeopardize the progress that has been made in Iraq." I worry about that too, but Iraq is a sovereign country and they've asked us to leave. We have tired of one another, as the quiet collapse of talks to keep troops there has testified. They want to take the training wheels off, and we have no choice but to comply.
CATO has the better take...
This costly and counterproductive war—launched under false pretenses, sold to the American people as a cakewalk and an operation that would be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues—may finally, mercifully, be coming to an end. I certainly hope that is the case.Our troops performed heroically, and they have ushered a people out of dictatorship. We've given the Iraqis a republic, if they can keep it.
DoD's Army Moves Out, State Department's Army Moves In
I read in Wired that the State Department will fill the vacuum with a private army of 5,500 security contractors at a cost of over $3 billion! I ask, it it worth it?
It's a sign of trouble that the State Department needs its own private army. How can you build goodwill traveling around in armored convoys? With all that firepower, international incidents will happen, innocent Iraqis will be killed, and the populace will be screaming for blood. No diplomatic immunity for the security contractors, so we will simply allow the accused to sneak out of the country, adding more fuel to the fire.
Why do we need such a large State Department presence there? Iraq has no special value to us, there are no warm cultural affinities. Why the fortress in Baghdad? Why all the consulates polkadotting a hostile land providing targets for violent hatred?
We should put a small embassy among the others in Baghdad, and put a consulate up in Kurdistan and hire the Pesh Merga to guard it, which is what we do in many other countries.
Bloomberg - Will Troops Leave Iraq Better Off?
