All US Troops to Leave Iraq by Year's End

[Frodo]

No garrison after all, thanks to Iraqis' insistence on non-immunity for American soldiers:

APNewsBreak: US drops keeping troops in Iraq

By LARA JAKES and REBECCA SANTANA
Associated Press

The U.S. is abandoning plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline, The Associated Press has learned. The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.

The decision ends months of hand-wringing by U.S. officials over whether to stick to a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008 or negotiate a new security agreement to ensure that gains made and more than 4,400 American military lives lost since March 2003 do not go to waste.

In recent months, Washington has been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of several thousand American troops remaining to continue training Iraqi security forces. A Pentagon spokesman said Saturday that no final decision has been reached about the U.S. training relationship with the Iraqi government.

But a senior Obama administration official in Washington confirmed Saturday that all American troops will leave Iraq except for about 160 active-duty soldiers attached to the U.S. Embassy.

[You kip if you want to...]

Good.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Good.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Good.

[Rochambeau jk I'm Hamilton]

Yea, instead they'll be going to random African countries. Like Libya, and Uganda...

[Lief 🗽]

War-mongering DINO Obama strikes again!

[Oakvale]

War-mongering DINO Obama strikes again!

Obama's just another Bush, maaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

[Rochambeau jk I'm Hamilton]

Obama isn't anything. He's just there.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Good.  I just don't see what US troops could hope to accomplish there at this point in time.

[dead0man]

..and if the country goes to sh**t as soon as we're all gone, it will still be W's fault, so this is a win-win.

[Jacobtm]

..and if the country goes to sh**t as soon as we're all gone, it will still be W's fault, so this is a win-win.

Yes, it would be Bush's fault, because he is the one who chose to invade Iraq.

The only decent thing to do now is to leave Iraq to Iraqis. We've done quite enough there.

[dead0man]

Well, to be fair, if it does go to sh**t now, some of that fault will fall on the shoulders of the Iraqis themselves.  But yes, W will deservedly get his share as well.  How's a 70:30 split sound?  Or maybe a 65:15:20 with Rummy getting the 20?

[they don't love you like i love you]

This is some of the best news of the year, though pretty boring compared to some of the other crazy things happening in 2011.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Well, to be fair, if it does go to sh**t now, some of that fault will fall on the shoulders of the Iraqis themselves.  But yes, W will deservedly get his share as well.  How's a 70:30 split sound?  Or maybe a 65:15:20 with Rummy getting the 20?

Actually Rummy should get the 65.  I don't blame Bush for assuming his Secretary of Defense knew what he was doing, just for taking so long to realize Rumsfeld did not.

[The Mikado]

Yea, instead they'll be going to random African countries. Like Libya, and Uganda...

How many US troops are there in Libya?

Oh, right, 0.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Yea, instead they'll be going to random African countries. Like Libya, and Uganda...

How many US troops are there in Libya?

Oh, right, 0.

Your right-we drop million doller bombs by the dozen and fly away.

[Insula Dei]

So tough to actually have to spend dollers for other people's lives. Can't they just die without bothering us?