U.S. Marks End to 9-Year War, Leaving an Uncertain Iraq

By artappraiser on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 11:46am |

By Tim Arango, New York Times, Dec. 15/16, 2011

BAGHDAD — [.....]

After nearly nine years, about 4,500 American fatalities and $1 trillion, America’s war in Iraq is about to end. Officials marked the finish on Thursday with a modest ceremony at the airport days before the last troops take the southern highway to Kuwait, going out as they came in, to conclude the United States’ most ambitious and bloodiest military campaign since Vietnam.

[....]

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/world/middleeast/end-for-us-begins-period-of-uncertainty-for-iraqis.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

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I was wondering when someone would mention this. I went to a few sites like the Daily Beast and one had look around the site to find something talking about the folding up of the flag. Both conservatives and liberals seem to want to not acknowledge this benchmark, or next phase, of the Iraq-US relationship, which will likely become something like the US relationship with Pakistan in the near future.

by Elusive Trope on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:13pm

I was envisioning history books saying it ended with a whimper, few having interest anymore. Also I was thinking about how the Iraq war was the basic cause of the popularization of the blogosphere as we know it. Sometimes I think more than a few bloggers can't let go of the "fighting George Bush" paradigm they began with, while at the same time no longer having any interest in Iraq.

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:17pm

Indeed. It is interesting to note that the blogosphere basically emerged and grew up during the Iraq war.

Warblogs first appeared during the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and attained maturity during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. While some warblogs arise out of and are directly limited in their coverage to the war in question, others expand their coverage to related political, social and cultural issues and continue commentating beyond the end of the war. Likewise, blogs that ordinarily cover non-war issues may dedicate their coverage during a time of war to the conflict, with some reverting to their previous missions at the end of the war, and others retaining their new character.

The term "Warblog" was coined by Matt Welch, who launched his warblog on September 17, 2001.

Even those blogs that didn't deal with the war, or even politics, did so within a culture attempting to adapt to two wars oversees.

by Elusive Trope on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:31pm

Oliver North @ Fox News, Dec. 16: Iraq: Victory or Defeat?

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:13pm

Iraq oil security tested as U.S. forces withdraw
By Rania El Gamal, Reuters,

BAGHDAD | Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:32am EST - A bombing of southern Iraqi crude pipelines despite a nationwide alert against a possible surge in insurgent attacks has heightened fears for the future security of Iraq's vital oil sector as American troops withdraw. [....]

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:20pm

Possible increase in gas in the short term as a result of anxiety in the market? Impact on the global economy as prices surge? Increase in unemployment and higher governmental debts as tax flow decreases?

by Elusive Trope on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:24pm

Tom Ricks, Dec. 15: One colonel’s thoughts on the end of our long, hard involvement in the war in Iraq

Huffington Post, Dec. 15: Iraq Final March Home: Thoughts From a Latina Vet

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:32pm

New York Times guest op-eds:

An Unstable, Divided Land
By Reidar Visser, Dec. 15/16, 2011

Reidar Visser, a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, is the author of “A Responsible End? The United States and the Iraqi Transition, 2005-2010.”

[....]

By consistently thinking of Mr. Maliki as a Shiite rather than as an Iraqi Arab, American officials overlooked opportunities that once existed in Iraq but are now gone. Thanks to their own flawed policies, the Iraq they are leaving behind is more similar to the desperate and divided country of 2006 than to the optimistic Iraq of early 2009.

In Iraq, Abandoning Our Friends
By Kirk W. Johnson, Dec.15/16, 2011

Kirk W. Johnson, a former reconstruction coordinator in Iraq, founded the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies.

[....]

And so our policy in the final weeks of this war is as simple as it is shameful: submit your paperwork and wait. If you can survive the next 18 months, maybe we’ll let you in. For the first time in five years, I’m telling Iraqis who write to me for help that they shouldn’t count on America anymore.

Moral timidity and a hapless bureaucracy have wedged our doors tightly shut and the Iraqis who remained loyal to us are weeks away from learning how little America’s word means.

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:47pm

U.S. Marks End to 9-Year War, Leaving an Uncertain Iraq

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