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America the Abusive Spouse


© Ted Rall

I’m appreciative of Obama finally getting us the hell out of Iraq, a place — as Obama repeatedly said — we should never have invaded in the first place.

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8 Comments

  1. Duckman wrote:

    I’m not about to come out and say whether this was good or bad…we’ll get the answer in the years to come.

    Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 7:55 am | Permalink
  2. PatriotSGT wrote:

    Truth be told, I’m glad we’re leaving. Unfortunatley, the credit in this case can’t go fully to the President. The Iraqi’s get the credit because they held firm in the SOFA agreement proceedings. The administration and DOD tried to get us to stay, but the Iraqi’s insisted that US Servicemen be subject to Iraqi law, which they knew the US would nevver go for. So thank you Iraq for kicking us out and having the kahunas to go it alone. If Iraq had agreed to the demand to not have our military subject to their law, we’d still be there.
    Now, lets get out of Afghanistan all on our own without being basically and politely asked to leave. (Before I go back again preferably, alittle selfishness yes):)

    Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 10:25 am | Permalink
  3. IL-08 wrote:

    The irony being of course, that we were ‘forced’ to leave because our military would NEVER be committed to to being subject to law……

    We learned THAT lesson at My Lai…

    Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 11:40 am | Permalink
  4. PatriotSGT wrote:

    Hey IL-08. My Lai was a rogue commander who committed an inexcusable atrocity. It is not however representative of the other 99.9% of the 5 million service men and women who served in southeast asia. There are always that small percentage of any group (occupy wall st for example) who bring on a bad name, but by no means represent the whole. Unfortunately its how most people view the entire group like yourself. Our servicemen must be held accountable for their actions, but deserve to be protected by our nation when acting on behalf of the President, just like our diplomats all of whom have diplomatic immunity including foreign diplomats stationed on US soil from the US justice system.

    Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 12:55 pm | Permalink
  5. IL-08 wrote:

    Oh my, so many things to take up…. Where to start??

    First, of course I completely agree that the vast majority of service personnel are completely honorable and we are deeply in their debt. That is not a question in our politically correct society. I do take a bit of offense in that you do not know how I view the entire group.

    That said, it really doesn’t matter, all that matters in these decisions is public opinion as public opinion is much more powerful than all the B1Bs in the USAF. My Lai had more to do with the end (and defeat) of the Vietnam war than any NVA of vietcong operation (except maybe TET, and that was again because of how it formed opinion). One rogue commander who ends up in an Iraqi court for crimes against humanity could do more damage to the US than TWO George W Bushs….

    Your statement that servicemen deserve to be protected when acting on behalf of the president implies that the president is above the law. Hummmm, wasn’t that Nixon’s stance???? Wrong again.

    Your comparison to diplomats is a nice try, but diplomats don’t carry automatic weapons and go on search and destroy missions. If they did, there would be a re-think of that whole policy.

    The occupy comments are interesting and support my argument that the only important thing is opinion. Different groups (RE: Fox News) actively promote the existence of that tiny percentage in order to shape public opinion into what their viewership expects.

    Bottom line, it was time to go.

    Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 4:56 pm | Permalink
  6. BuddyGoodness wrote:

    Yeah, Obama had no choice in leaving Iraq. That is pure spin by the administration.

    Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 8:19 pm | Permalink
  7. IL-08 wrote:

    Obama had no choice in leaving Iraq????? If that were true, then George W Bush had no choice but NOT INVADE Iraq, but he did anyway. Obama had no choice implies that this president is bound by rule of law, while the previous one was not.

    Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 9:07 pm | Permalink
  8. Iron Knee wrote:

    Great point, IL-08. I laugh when people say Obama had no choice but to leave Iraq. It is amazing how quickly people forget how insane our government was just 3 years ago. I guess I should be glad that people like BuddyGoodness automatically assume that our current administration is at least somewhat sane.

    Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 9:20 pm | Permalink