Troops home yet? (last combat brigade leaves iraq)

[tony hipchest]

... maybe tomorrow or the next day.

KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait – As their convoy reached the barbed wire at the border crossing out of Iraq on Wednesday, the soldiers whooped and cheered. Then they scrambled out of their stifling hot armored vehicles, unfurled an American flag and posed for group photos.
For these troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100818/...cans_head_home

[ricardisimo]

It's a step in the right direction, to be sure. Bring them home safe.

[MasterOfPuppets]

BUT they're still leaving 50,000 targets there. i seriously doubt we've seen the end of american casualties in iraq.

[SteelersinCA]

They had Harley dealerships over in Iraq? Wow, stimulate that economy people!!

[NJarhead]

Barack Obama's deadline? Call me crazy, but wasn't this exit plan signed off by GWB? I don't believe Obama made any changes to it either.

[ricardisimo]

Bringing our boys and girls home is good... I don't care whose idea it was. There are indeed still 50,000 of us their, unfortunately... we need to work on that.

[Mach1]

Just in time to send them to Afghanistan.

[SteelerEmpire]

Saw a few around here 2 day.... time to start planning for Afghanistan... Islam's gonna keep business for the armed forces... Non-stop wars... not America will get a taste of what it feels like to be a Jew... lol... Don't be discouraged, we've been doing this for over 5000 years... lol...

[ricardisimo]

Islam's gonna keep business for the armed forces... Don't be discouraged, we've been doing this for over 5000 years... lol...

Doing what, exactly? The insinuation here is that Islam and Judaism have been at each others' throats since the dawn of time. Obviously, you realize that's not true at all, right?

Historically speaking, the "existential threat" to Jews has come from Christians, primarily Catholics. Islam was pretty much a non-factor until 1948. Maybe someone could make the argument that it all went South with Balfour in 1917, but even that's a bit of a stretch.

This almost certainly belongs in another thread. Sorry.

[Mach1]

Doing what, exactly? The insinuation here is that Islam and Judaism have been at each others' throats since the dawn of time. Obviously, you realize that's not true at all, right?

Historically speaking, the "existential threat" to Jews has come from Christians, primarily Catholics. Islam was pretty much a non-factor until 1948. Maybe someone could make the argument that it all went South with Balfour in 1917, but even that's a bit of a stretch.

This almost certainly belongs in another thread. Sorry.

[Godfather]

Barack Obama's deadline? Call me crazy, but wasn't this exit plan signed off by GWB? I don't believe Obama made any changes to it either.

You're right.

In fact, Candidate Obama promised to pull out within 16 months so he missed that deadline back in May. Of course the Kool-Aid drinkers don't care about facts so they'll crow about it, even though He missed His own deadline by three months AND the combat/non-combat distinction is like having a Mission Accomplished banner.