Last Friday, Oct 21, President Obama declared the Iraq War “over”. He said “the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year.” He and US defense officials wanted to leave a few thousand soldiers there as trainers, but Iraq would not grant them immunity from prosecution, so Obama decided to withdraw all US troops. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that this isn’t the first time Obama has “ended” the Iraq War. On August 31, 2010, he announced the withdrawal of “the last US combat brigade from Iraq”. That description was highly misleading. About 50,000 US Army troops stayed in Iraq, most of them combat troops. Worse, an even larger number of private military contractors (aka mercenaries) also stayed. US combat casualties, not to mention Iraqi civilian casualties, continued to rise — in fact, the US military death rate spiked in June 2011. Since that first “ending” of the Iraq War, over 50 US troops died in Iraq, bringing the sad toll-to-date to 4479.
And this time? Is Obama’s claim that all US combat troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year true this time?
Answer: Perhaps more true than before, but there is still some “fine print” he didn’t mention in last Friday’s speech. Supposedly the US State Department will take over operations in Iraq from the Department of Defense. State Department officials have built a large force of military contractors to provide security for American diplomats and US facilities. But the Defense Department will not be totally out of the picture: a small number of US Marines will remain in Iraq to guard the US embassy and two consulates.
In addition to the “fine print” that Obama didn’t mention, there have also been statements from other US and Iraqi officials that contradict Obama’s claim that all US combat troops will be withdrawn. Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough states that the United States will continue to train Iraq’s military. Will the trainers be US military troops, military contractors, or civilians? Qubad Talabani, the Kurdistan regional government representative in Washington and the son of Iraq’s president, said “As part of a new agreement there will be Americans in Iraq training and assisting the Iraqi armed forces. These Americans will not be combat troops but they will be US soldiers.” Huh? Didn’t the deal to leave military trainers in Iraq fall through?
So what is the truth? We will find out.
Until then, I will remain cautiously pessimistic.
Related PeacePundit Posts
- US Monthly Death Rate in Iraq Spikes
- US Military Likely to Remain in Iraq for Many Years
- Last US Combat Brigade Departs Iraq
- Cost of Iraq War: Civilian Lives, Lost Goodwill, and High Debt
