Posts Tagged ‘American troops’
Iraq celebrates U.S. withdrawal – of course
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki declared a new dawn on Saturday as Iraq celebrated the departure of American troops at a ceremony held amid tight security and without Maliki’s key political rivals…
Saturday marked the end of the 2008 security pact agreed by then-President George W. Bush and was the last day for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq, nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and allowed the Shi’ite majority to take power.
Except for a small military contingent attached to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the last of the American troops departed nearly two weeks ago.
“I declare this day, the 31st of December, on which the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq is complete, as a national day,” said Maliki in a televised ceremony, surrounded by security officials in dress uniforms.
“It is Iraq’s day. It is a feast for all Iraqis. It is the dawn of a new day in Mesopotamia … Your country is free.”
Maliki said he would work to maintain freedom and “respect political, intellectual and religious diversity…”
Brits rotate out of dangerous Afghan district – hand it to U.S.
Britain withdrew the last of its Royal Marines from the deadly Sangin District in Helmand Province on Monday, handing control over to American troops.
More than 100 British soldiers died in Sangin, nearly a third of that country’s casualties since 2001. British, Afghan and American military officials said the shift represented a routine battlefield rotation…
There are 9,500 British troops remaining in Afghanistan, the second largest component of the 150,000 coalition troops here. The United States recently completed an increase in its own forces to 100,000, the largest American force of the war. President Obama has promised to begin reducing American troops in Afghanistan beginning next July.
That’s OK. No matter which party controls the White House or Congress, Uncle Sugar is always first in line to be the cop of the world.
Next batch of U.S. troops won’t even get out of town!
Most of the additional American troops arriving in Afghanistan early next year will be deployed near the capital, Kabul, American military commanders here say, in a measure of how precarious the war effort has become.
It will be the first time that American or coalition forces have been deployed in large numbers on the southern flank of the city, a decision that reflects the rising concerns among military officers, diplomats and government officials about the increasing vulnerability of the capital and the surrounding area.
It also underscores the difficult choices confronting American military commanders as they try to apportion a limited number of forces not only within Afghanistan, but also between Afghanistan and Iraq…
It also means that most of the newly arriving troops will not be deployed with the main goal of curbing the cross-border flow of insurgents from their rear bases in Pakistan, something American commanders would like and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has recommended.
In other words, they still don’t love us in the suburbs.
No matter who wins election, our troops will be in Iraq “for years”
The United States will not likely launch another regime-changing war “anytime soon,” but American troops will remain in Iraq and Afghanistan for years, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.
Robert Gates says U.S. troops in Iraq will serve in advisory or counterterrorism capacities “for years to come.” Failure in either nation “would be a disastrous blow to our credibility, both among our friends and allies and among potential adversaries,” Gates said…
Gates said not to expect troops to leave Iraq after the upcoming U.S. election.
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