Mission Accomplished
Something about this web banner is oddly familiar. The President won’t be landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier tonight, but the White House is certainly doing all it can to make it appear that Iraq is really done and dusted.
Meanwhile, John Bolton offers to take over the throne and lead the charge to Iran.
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I don’t understand this post. That headline strikes me as correctly factual. Apart from the fact that non-combat troops will be in combat, that is. Still, the subtitle is the right one. Thank you makes more sense than congratulations.
What I was trying to convey, perhaps not so well, is that it’s quite likely that America will maintain a military presence in Iraq for many years, perhaps decades. While everyone is for recognizing the sacrifices of our troops, it is also an appropriate moment to consider how much additional sacrifice will be necessary — whether the military calls it a “combat mission” or something else, the occupation will continue. If the mission continues for decades like Korea, it’s possible that many more Americans than have so far served there will be sent to Iraq in the coming decades. But perhaps we’ll hear more straight talk about what exactly the end of the “combat mission” means tonight.
While this is far less tone-deaf than Bush’s version was, it’s only slightly less mendacious. What’s going on in Iraq isn’t a war, exactly (because it’s far lower in intensity and there was no formal declaration of war), but it isn’t nothing, and it isn’t any different on the 31st than it was on the 30th. People are still dying. Are they to be recognized any differently because they died in a non-war?
Lewis, I agree with that. MattSwartz might have put my thoughts better than I did. Although as someone who didn’t serve, the triumphalism of “mission accomplished” seems more than slightly more mendacious as compared to “The combat mission in Iraq ends August 31.” But I think we’re all agreed that the latter is misleading sophistry at best.
Where did this chief blusterer come from?
“John Bolton offers to take over the throne and lead the charge to Iran.”
As if we needed any further confirmation of his self-delusion. Yes, I think the 2012 Republican nomination will come down to a hard fought campaign between Newt Gingrich and John Bolton, with Rudy Giuliani looming as a serious dark-horse candidate. Thanks for the laugh.
As for the combat mission ending on August 31, I found it interesting that VP Joe Biden in his remarks in Baghdad this morning stressed that the 50,000 “advisers and trainers” that were remaining in Iraq were fully combat capable and ready. So, while the combat mission may have ended on August 31, the combat deaths will certainly go on.