President Obama has announced that the war in Iraq is over and that the US will be fully out of Iraq next year. August 31st marks the departure of the last US combat brigade. This day comes after an expenditure of over US $ 751 billion over a eight year period-2003 to 2010-an average of US $ 94 billion a year. It also cost 4000 US lives with many more wounded and maimed and even more scarred for life because of the traumatic experience of a strange war. On an average there were 150000 US troops in Iraq with a surge in 2007. Two US Presidents, three Secretaries of State, two Secretaries of Defense and four military commanders presided over a war that should never have been and for which on the average public support was 50%.
Looking back over the years the highlights were the invasion that started on the premise that Saddam was linked to Al Qaeda and that he was developing WMD. Both these assumptions were proved false and were the result of manipulated intelligence. Then came retaliation-the deadly bombing of the UN Headquarters in Iraq followed by the capture and public humiliation of Saddam Hussein that guaranteed that the retaliation would be unending and bloody. The Abu Ghraib prison abuse tarnished the image of the US military and was followed by the attack on the 'Fallujah insurgents'. Talabani became the President and a new constitution was approved but a massive blast at the holy Sammara Shrine led to sectarian violence followed by the killing of Abu Musab Al Zarqavi and then the video taped execution of Saddam.
Read Complete Article Here: http://www.zoneasia-pk.com/ZoneAsia-Pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1614:leaving-iraq&catid=41:securityissues&Itemid=62
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment