The Formal End of the War in Iraq
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Dec 15, 2011 at 11:25am
The war in Iraq came to an official end today.
Fittingly, Michael Totten will be joining us tomorrow to discuss his book, Iraq in the Wake of the Surge. I certainly have many questions for him, and I'm sure you do, too.
Michael, we're all looking forward to a conversation with you.
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May '10
Re: The Formal End of the War in Iraq
My reaction to this post was to immediately look up the total American casualties of this war.
I'm sure there are all sorts of statistics regarding schools and infrastructure built since ending Saddam Hussein's reign many years ago. But what I woud like to hear from Totten (and others) is how America's occuption of Iraq has changed their culture, if at all. The construction and training can be abused or negated. Culture will determine what sort of nation we leave behind.
Dec '10
Re: The Formal End of the War in Iraq
I see our guys. Were any high ranking Iraqi government officials there?
May '10
Re: The Formal End of the War in Iraq
Alright! Who was supposed to hang the "Mission Accomplished" banner?
May '11
Re: The Formal End of the War in Iraq
So we had a V-E day, a V-J day and now a V-I day. I looked outside just now and I don't see anyone celebrating in the streets. I have not heard anyone break into the "regularly scheduled programming" and announce "Victory in Iraq."
It doesn't seem like much of a victory...of course it never was a war either. Just a lot of good American soldiers and many Iraqis getting killed or hurt. Something seems wrong with this picture.
Jan '11
Re: The Formal End of the War in Iraq
Funny; I thought the official end to the war was when the United States turned over sovereignty to Iraq and their people conducted an election to determine their representative-government's leadership. But that might just be me trying to put my [purple-stained] finger on when the official end to our war with Iraq might have been.
Jul '10
Re: The Formal End of the War in Iraq
I had the same thought. I don't think We celebrate Victory Here anymore, much less define it.
Question to all:
Everyone remembers the picture of the Sailor kissing the Lady in the street celebrating Victory after WWII.:
Symbolizing the end of the Iraq War, Who or what would be kissing Who or what?
Jun '10
Re: The Formal End of the War in Iraq
I remember the day we took our bombers off alert, signaling the end of the Cold War. I cried. I remember the ends of the Vietnam War, both of 'em. We celebrated our POWs coming home in 1973, we wondered what the point of it all was in 1975. I remember the end of the first Gulf War, the WTF confusion of doing a job half way and then stopping in the middle, followed by a decade of no-fly zones. The end of the Iraq War is, sadly, kind of anticlimactic. All the lives lost, all the treasure spend, to end up with an even more unsettled Persian (or as my niece insists, Arabian) Gulf. I somehow believe there should be more fanfare for all those who served.
Jul '10
Re: The Formal End of the War in Iraq
Unfortunately, we are leaving behind an Islamic Republic that will be dominated by Iran, and which has milquetoast Sharia as its constitutional basis. And the Christians? Oh, well they're all gone now, so don't have to worry about them any more. I'm no isolationist; in fact I'm pretty Imperialist and Darwinian in my views of non-Western cultures, but at the very least, we could have gotten our money's worth there and done to Iraq what Ataturk did to Turkey. He managed to turn the heart of the Caliphate into a radically secular place for a 80 years until that all fell apart. And us? Well we gave an Islamic country the ability to vote in an Islamist government, which, while not genocidal like its predecessor, will not be friendly to minorities or our interests.