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I also recommend Rachel’s follow-up talk with Richard Engel for a summary of how screwed up Iraq still is.

Last American combat troops leave Iraq. I think President George W. Bush deserves some credit for victory.

I commented on one of my favorite blogs Deus Ex Malcontent:

It’s like giving Billy credit for saving his town from the Gremlins.

I had some commentary, but I’ll let the story speak for itself.

subject: [ARSLIST] OT- Increase in compensation:::::Remedy Engineer – OCONUS-IRAQ

The annualized compensation package for this position has been increased to $275,000 (inclusive-base plus foreign service and hazardous/dangerous duty pay).

Remedy Engineer for deployment to IRAQ to work on a major contract which requires excellent skill sets, US Citizenship and a current or recently current DoD Secret or higher clearance(as specified below).

The job description is included below These are direct hire, with full benefits jobs.

It does seem like to withdraw our forces would be to punish Iraqis for our own imbecilic decision as a country to elect George W. Bush as our leader twice. Our military is breaking, and the effects of this conflict on them and their families are devastating. I think that these factors, when taken in account with our lack of a near-term obtainable objective in Iraq, are enough reasons in themselves to get out. But Petraeus and Crocker’s task to determine how to best alleviate sectarian violence and extremist terrorism and to give the people of Iraq a chance. I may be dead wrong, but it’s not the military’s job to look at the impact of the current conflict on our future strength and readiness; that role would go to the civilian leadership at the Pentagon. And then it should be up to the President and his best advisers to weigh the information from both sides.

It’s pretty clear that our presence in Iraq is probably better for the Iraqis that our withdrawal. Unfortunately, we can’t do much more than stick bandages on bleeding wounds, and the wounds simply get infected every time we reduce our presence somewhere.

And it’s pretty clear that our military has been decimated by our continued presence there.

And it’s crystal clear that we should have never been there in the first place, and it’s nauseating that Bush and cronies are seemingly off the hook for the propaganda, cherry-picked intelligence, hijacking of 9/11, and flat-out lies that led us into Iraq.

As a very liberal Democrat, I’m not convinced that quick withdrawal is sound policy at this point. It’s too late. Americans and Democrats should’ve demanded an exit a couple of years ago–or should’ve made sure we never went to Iraq in the first place–or should’ve never let Bush ascend to the Presidency in the first place. Now, it’s just too fucking late.

Dems made the tactical mistake of not going all out to prevent the surge, figuring that it simply wouldn’t work, and there’d be a clear way out come September when Petraeus would tell them how it didn’t work. Well, there’s fair evidence, cherry-picked, but fair enough nonetheless, that some objectives of the surge were met. That doesn’t justify that we had a surge in the first place, but it makes it damn hard to pull the plug now. It’s even harder when Petraeus AND Bush will sign off on “troop reduction” which doesn’t really mean jack-shit since we’ll still be at pre-surge numbers next summer, but it does, as a soundbyte, make it sound like Bush is doing something positive for the troops.

I saw some of my blog stats spike over the last couple of days, and so I feel somewhat obliged to say that I don’t intend my comments to be taken too seriously. I don’t pretend to know enough to have any answers. I’m just thinking through my own thoughts, and the result is this entry.

The only thing I do know for sure is that we’re fucked. We’ve been fucked since November of 2000, and we’ll remain fucked until at least January of 2009. And if you voted for Bush even once, I’ll probably never forgive you, for the absolute shitstorm you’ve permitted upon this country and this planet that your grandchildren will still smell the stench of in the decades to come.

Mr Bush perhaps summed it up best when the Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile greeted him at the airport and asked “How was Baghdad?”

“We’re kicking ass,” Mr Bush responded.

- Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald, 9/5/2007

Officials say Marine Gen. Peter Pace will convey concerns by the chiefs that keeping in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq into 2008 will “severely strain” the US armed forces.

But I thought this was the fight of our generation. I thought our way of life was at stake. I thought this was the central front in the battle between good and evil.

Now even Peter Pace wants to cut-and-run? What a pussy.

I guess we’re just going to have to have a draft…

I'm being sarcastic, just in case you didn't know. And I appreciate that use of that five-letter word synonymous with female genitalia is demeaning.

I think the insurgency turned out to be more robust.

The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th.
- George W. Bush, July 12, 2007

Then John Edwards said that Bush’s remarks “border on the delusional”.

Let’s see…Bush’s popularity is at 29%, but 50% of Americans still think Iraq was involved in 9/11. Since Americans are so !^$&#*$ stupid, Bush and his cabal aren’t quite so stupid for continuing to propagate the enormous Iraq/911 lie.

Retired Gen. George Washington Criticizes Bush’s Handling Of Iraq War

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Revolutionary War veteran noted that while Hussein was a tyrant, that alone did not justify a "conflict that seems without design or end."

[thanks to RP from LJ for posting this]