 Iraqi troops to pull out of Iraq
After 5 years of war with countless casualties an all sides, Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri Al-Maliki announced yesterday that Iraqi troops will be pulled
out of Iraq beginning late this year. "Support for the war
has been flagging ever since Saddam Hussein's execution and
we can no longer justify the tragic loss of life and tremendous
monetary expense," said Maliki in his announcement to the Iraqi
parliment.
In
an effort to assuage the concerns of other nations over any potential
instability in the region in their wake, Maliki
insisted that prudence would be a guiding virtue during the drawdown
of forces.
"Certainly we
want to make sure we don't leave a power vacuum in our absence, but the
Americans seem to be here for the long haul so that's cool.
They are more than capable of shoring up most areas
against the insurgency once we withdraw."
In his speech, Maliki outlined the numerous arguments favoring Iraqi troop reduction. The
Iraq war seems to have fallen into a recurring pattern of relative calm
followed by renewed violence, he observed, citing the deadly escalation in Basra as only the
most recent example.
"The current military strategy appears to be one of maintaining the
status quo rather than advancing toward a definitive victory, if such
is even possible.
Recurrent extended deployments have taken a heavy physical and
psychological toll on our young volunteer army. Medical care for
wounded veterans is flagrantly abysmal and their mental health is being vitrually completely ignored. An overwhelming majority of the civilian population have lost the stomach for this fight arguing that
the vast war funds could be more fruitfully spent on infrastructure,
education and health care, to name just a few areas in dramatic
need. All this, coupled with new signs showing army recruitment
starting to decline, lead me to the only conclusion at which any
democratically elected leader could possibly arrive. We must
begin to withdraw."
President Bush appeared beside himself when
asked of the decision at a recent press conference, saying only, "Huh.
See, now I hadn't heard that. I hadn't heard that.
That's interesting."
It remains unclear exactly where the Iraqi army will be withdrawing to, since nearly all enlisted personnel are Iraqi citizens.
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