Merry Christmas, War Is Over
By Mitch Berg
The war in Iraq is officially over.
Thanks to all the 1.5 million servicepeople who fought there over the past eight years.
To the families of the 4,500 who died – I’m sorry. This country – and the people of Iraq – owe you more than anyone can ever pay.
December 15th, 2011 at 6:49 am
American servicemen, truly the one percent…
December 15th, 2011 at 6:54 am
Welcome home and Merry Christmas, brothers and sisters. Job well done!
December 15th, 2011 at 7:16 am
Second the motion.
December 15th, 2011 at 7:30 am
Did we win?
December 15th, 2011 at 10:12 am
Did we cover?
December 15th, 2011 at 10:16 am
No blood for 710
December 15th, 2011 at 10:23 am
Thanks to the President and the military.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:23 am
Well! That was worth it!
Watch for the absence of the following in MSM reports on this story:
-Mention of Harry Reid’s declaration that the war was lost (April 19, 2007).
-Pretty much everything that appears in this Reuters story from 2007:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/02/12/us-usa-politics-obama-idUSN0923153320070212
December 15th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Welcome home to the men and women who came back alive. My thanks, appreciation and regret for those who didn’t.
Here’s U.S. troop videos set to Richard Thompson’s “‘Dad’s Gonna Kill Me”. I love the “welcome home” clips at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lmaW2uGcr0
December 15th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Let’s hope we’re not back in Iraq trying to evict the Iranians anytime soon.
December 15th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
“Thanks to the President”
Yes, Earsell. A full 16 months after he promised you true believers during his campaign: “And I made it clear that by August 31st, 2010, America’s combat mission in Iraq would end,” Obama said. “And that is exactly what we are doing – as promised and on schedule.”
Of course, since President Bush had set the withdrawal timeline to December 31, 2011 with the signing of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) by U.S. and Iraq officials on Nov. 16, 2008, he will most likely blame Bush for the extra year!
December 15th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
From the Reuters article I linked to in an earlier comment:
Obama was not in the Senate at the time of the vote but opposed the war from the start. He has proposed a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to be completed by the end of March 2008, and he told reporters he was uncertain how [Hillary] Clinton intended to end the conflict.
And Obama’s response to Ally John Howard’s criticism of then-candidate Obama’s plan for unilateral withdrawal in 2008:
“If he’s ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq,” he said. “Otherwise it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.”
Mackbee’s support of Obama’s Iraq War policy is dependent on the absence of critical examination of Obama’s Iraq War policy.
December 15th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Thanks to the servicemen and women, many of whom did not return.
On a very separate note, I would also say thanks are due to President Bush. That man made a lot of mistakes, including how he approached the war, and his loyalty to an approach that increasingly made little sense. Despite that, however, he persevered and opted to go with the surge strategy against enormous political opposition, when that idea was very unpopular. In short, having the courage to finish the job when most others would have cut and run.
December 15th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Excellent points, PJ. Whenever a lib villifies President Bush, I like to remind them that a. he at least came to congress for permission, like he is supposed to, unlike the Dear Leader’s bogus journey into Libya, b. most of the DemocRATs voted for it, based on the same info, so they can’t come back now and say Bush lied, without exposing the fact that they didn’t perform their own due diligence and c. every president in history, has relied on intelligence provided by trusted government agencies before putting the country on a war footing, including Dems.
I remember one key thing that Bush said during a press conference toward the end of his term. He responded to a reporter’s question by answering; “I wasn’t hired to be popular; I was hired to be a leader”. Something the current occupant of the office still does not understand.
December 15th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
As usual, I’m a bit late to the party, but second/third/fourth the sentiment of thanks to all who served. May we all do something for those who returned with grevious wounds, whether visible or not, and for the families of those whose return was their final journey.