Sadly resigned about Iraq

Here's a link to my most recent piece for Antiwar.com, written yesterday almost in a burst. I am deeply disappointed but unfortunately not all that surprised that Obama is stretching out the timetable for withdrawal from Iraq -- and planning to leave 35,00-50,000 U.S. troops in the country after that. Interestingly, the best chance for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops seems to be because of the Iraqi government, not the U.S. The Iraqi government as constituted may be a poor thing that has made little political progress toward reconciling the still-deep divisions within the country, but it is still more independent than the U.S. undoubtedly had in mind. It wants all U.S. troops out by the end of 2011, and there's just a chance that might happen. If it had been up to the U.S., troops might have been there for the duration, as in Korea and Germany. We need to get over the notion that we need troops stationed all over the world, ostensibly to safeguard U.S. interests but more often to serve as a tripwire to assure that the U.S. is automatically part of whatever local conflicts might break out. The country is in a financial/economic crisis in part because of these unnecessary commitments, and we wants to ensure more of them. Guess I have to finish my book and see if it has any impact on thinking and action.