When Jumping Ship Becomes Fashionable...
Britain will withdraw 1,600 troops from Iraq...(that's just for starters!)...
in the coming months and aims to further cut its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the country's south, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday.
The announcement, which came as Denmark said it would withdraw its 460 troops and Lithuania said it was considering pulling out its small contingent, comes as the U.S. is implementing an increase of 21,000 more troops for Iraq - putting Washington on an opposite track as its main coalition allies.
Blair has been under huge political pressure at home to come up with a withdrawal plan from what has become a very unpopular war.
Blair told the House of Commons that British troops will stay in Iraq until at least 2008 and work to secure the Iran-Iraq border and maintain supply routes to U.S. and coalition troops. He told lawmakers that "increasingly our role will be support and training, and our numbers will be able to reduce accordingly."
"The actual reduction in forces will be from the present 7,100 - itself down from over 9,000 two years ago and 40,000 at the time of the conflict - to roughly 5,500," Blair said.
Besides the United States, Britain and Denmark, the major partners in the coalition include South Korea (2,300 troops), Poland (900), Australia and Georgia (both 800) and Romania (600), according to the Brookings Institution.
South Korea plans to halve its 2,300-member contingent in the northern city of Irbil by April, and is under pressure from parliament to devise a plan for a complete withdrawal by year's end. Polish President Lech Kaczynski has said that his country's troops would stay no longer than December.
We've come a long way baby! Yes indeed...we've (the administration) come a long way in tearing down another nation, killing many of its innocent indigenous peoples, destroying historical remnants and antiquities, not to mention their way of life as they knew it. But most of America doesn't care about that because they aren't there to see it first hand...and couldn't be bothered to find the horror on the internet that is available in picture or video form. The rest of the world and what is happening there is at our very fingertips...we have no excuse for being blinded by the light.
Our administrators of this nation started it all. They took apart of a sovereign country that had not by any means attacked us...ruined it and all who try to live there. Children no longer go to school...most businesses are gone completely...only a few manage to survive and they are the lucky ones. Water and electricity? What's that? And heat when it is cold...we take all those things for granted...I'd become an animal if that happened to me. The first person to enter my sights would probably be sporting a pitchfork in their ass for having done this to me. I hold my right to water, electricity, heating, a job, clothing and food to be very dear for my daily living.
Should the Iraqis have anything less? Oh! I don't think so! I think the morons that voted for this war...and you know who that includes on the left side of the isle too...and the voters that voted for this administration to have another 4 years to f&ck not only us in the behind...but the Iraqis with their lying lies should get their butts over to Iraq and Afghanistan to help in the clean up. Help build homes and paint them...build fences for their livestock...buy them new vehicles for work...or whatever...build schools and get them the finest literature and teachers that money can buy. If I knew I'd be safe and there ever came a time that this would be possible I'd love to go over there among the people and help them do these things. I'd learn their language because things like that come very easily to me...and we'd have a gay old time!
But they will probably hate us forever...and I couldn't blame them for that. Every time I think about how this never needed to happen...EVER...it just makes my blood boil. I want to hit someone...someone in the position of power that made these stupid decisions without giving two hoops about the ramifications of their actions. It set a course that has traveled around the world many times over...and the world won't forget it...how can they...I can't. And this baby won't have a choice to forgive or forget...ever...choices were taken from these people 4 years ago...and really if the truth were known...some years before 9/11 ever occurred.
in the coming months and aims to further cut its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the country's south, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday.
The announcement, which came as Denmark said it would withdraw its 460 troops and Lithuania said it was considering pulling out its small contingent, comes as the U.S. is implementing an increase of 21,000 more troops for Iraq - putting Washington on an opposite track as its main coalition allies.
Blair has been under huge political pressure at home to come up with a withdrawal plan from what has become a very unpopular war.
Blair told the House of Commons that British troops will stay in Iraq until at least 2008 and work to secure the Iran-Iraq border and maintain supply routes to U.S. and coalition troops. He told lawmakers that "increasingly our role will be support and training, and our numbers will be able to reduce accordingly."
"The actual reduction in forces will be from the present 7,100 - itself down from over 9,000 two years ago and 40,000 at the time of the conflict - to roughly 5,500," Blair said.
Besides the United States, Britain and Denmark, the major partners in the coalition include South Korea (2,300 troops), Poland (900), Australia and Georgia (both 800) and Romania (600), according to the Brookings Institution.
South Korea plans to halve its 2,300-member contingent in the northern city of Irbil by April, and is under pressure from parliament to devise a plan for a complete withdrawal by year's end. Polish President Lech Kaczynski has said that his country's troops would stay no longer than December.
We've come a long way baby! Yes indeed...we've (the administration) come a long way in tearing down another nation, killing many of its innocent indigenous peoples, destroying historical remnants and antiquities, not to mention their way of life as they knew it. But most of America doesn't care about that because they aren't there to see it first hand...and couldn't be bothered to find the horror on the internet that is available in picture or video form. The rest of the world and what is happening there is at our very fingertips...we have no excuse for being blinded by the light.
Our administrators of this nation started it all. They took apart of a sovereign country that had not by any means attacked us...ruined it and all who try to live there. Children no longer go to school...most businesses are gone completely...only a few manage to survive and they are the lucky ones. Water and electricity? What's that? And heat when it is cold...we take all those things for granted...I'd become an animal if that happened to me. The first person to enter my sights would probably be sporting a pitchfork in their ass for having done this to me. I hold my right to water, electricity, heating, a job, clothing and food to be very dear for my daily living.
Should the Iraqis have anything less? Oh! I don't think so! I think the morons that voted for this war...and you know who that includes on the left side of the isle too...and the voters that voted for this administration to have another 4 years to f&ck not only us in the behind...but the Iraqis with their lying lies should get their butts over to Iraq and Afghanistan to help in the clean up. Help build homes and paint them...build fences for their livestock...buy them new vehicles for work...or whatever...build schools and get them the finest literature and teachers that money can buy. If I knew I'd be safe and there ever came a time that this would be possible I'd love to go over there among the people and help them do these things. I'd learn their language because things like that come very easily to me...and we'd have a gay old time!
But they will probably hate us forever...and I couldn't blame them for that. Every time I think about how this never needed to happen...EVER...it just makes my blood boil. I want to hit someone...someone in the position of power that made these stupid decisions without giving two hoops about the ramifications of their actions. It set a course that has traveled around the world many times over...and the world won't forget it...how can they...I can't. And this baby won't have a choice to forgive or forget...ever...choices were taken from these people 4 years ago...and really if the truth were known...some years before 9/11 ever occurred.
Labels: stupid decisions
Yes, it was a horrible, horrible thing for us as a nation to do to another. But I wish there was some way we could follow suit and pull out (soldiers, not aid) too. Even aid workers would be in danger, though.
Posted by
PBS |
4:21 AM
But the people are liberated. Don't they seem happy..
Posted by
Anonymous |
4:46 AM
Viet Nam was a tragedy, but for me(us) what bush has done is the most disgusting event in my life, and for those who died, come home without eyes, ears, arms, legs, psychological problems, and the many thousands of Iraqis whos lives have changed for the worse, ever since this illegal invasion(war) started! ; (
Posted by
Coffee Messiah |
5:38 AM
That bottom photo is so profoundly disturbing. And it is also the precise reason we must end this brutal war...the innocent are suffering because of our presence in Iraq.
Screw Blair, Bush, and "Return with Honor" Cheney. Bring our troops home and stop killing people.
Posted by
Blue |
5:38 AM
We all got mad as hell when we saw and heard about the conditions of building 18 at Walter Reed, and we were surely right to do so. Now think about the hospitals in Iraq. They aren't awful due to someone not paying attention, they are awful because we ripped the country all to hell. The doctors there who could afford it have long ago left the country for their own safty. The doctors who remain are working on a shoe string of supplies.
We have, as a country, become unforgivable. Many generations in Iraq will hate us and who the hell can blame them? Some of these children have grown up knowing nothing but fear and hatred of us. They won't forget.
Posted by
pissed off patricia |
5:54 AM
Sumo, you are one powerful woman! Strong, post and it reflects so many of us who are overwhelmed with sadness and anger and grief.
Posted by
Peacechick Mary |
6:56 AM
Couldn't have said it better myself Sumo. I don't even have the words to express the pain and sorrow I feel for the whole mess. Even if we built them an entire new country they would still hate us with justification. This is the darkest point in our history except maybe for the civil war when we killed each other for nothing. Maybe they are the same...evil tragedies over nothing.
Posted by
fallenmonk |
9:02 AM
great article
and not to worry....we are sending them prince harry
Posted by
michael the tubthumper |
9:08 AM
Blair has been under huge political pressure at home to come up with a withdrawal plan from what has become a very unpopular war.
Blair needs to do something to save New Labor's flabby tired ass from a drubbing in the next general election. Not clear if this will be enough.
Posted by
Anonymous |
2:45 PM
I think you do your best writing when you draw it down to the personal level. I really felt your anguish and I share your strong opinion about the murky situation that was subjected on the poor Iraqis. Quite frankly, this war has never had a less reason to go on than right now. That it still does, despite of the most people opposing it, is a profound tragedy. Why this criminal gang of neocons is allowed to continue the insanity even for one more day, totally escapes me?
Posted by
Anonymous |
7:59 PM
That picture of Blair makes him look like he just took a few big of hits from a bong, and like he is trying to hold off a laughing fit. Maybe that picture is just that, of him celebrating an epiphanous moment in which he realized that the Iraq war is not solving problems, but creating problems. I doubt he is that aware, though...
Even if what he is doing is for political expedience, I think he should be commended for proposing a reduction in his country's forces in Iraq of about 30%.
If Bush made such an announcement, and the proportion was the same as what Blair is proposing, we would be cutting our number of troops in Iraq by about 40,000 to 45,000... it won't happen under Bush's watch, though.
I can't blame them all for hating us, either... and if they were to hate us forever I wouldn't find it odd or surprising. I believe you are right in suggesting that we have been doing not-so-nice things in the Middle East for many years prior to "9-11". Why else were we attacked? "BECAUSE THEY HATE OUR FREEDOM!" Wrong... that's just a smokescreen, to distract Americans from the truth and for whipping up nationalism. I think it is because they hate the way they are treated by our government, and by the multinational corporations... and like many other nations will rightfully do, they are resisting our country's assertions of hegemony over the world through economic and military means.
Instead of electing people who want to take over the world and make sure the rest of the nations follow the rules we set down, I think it is high time we elect people who want to make the world a better place for everybody. An international policy of "dominion" or world domination is not representative of leadership, not in my book anyway. It represents only a fearful, cowardly approach to boogeymen created daily by The Decider. Heaven help us...
Posted by
Snave |
3:24 PM
BTW, I got so worked up I forgot to say "Great writing, Sumo!" That was from the gut, full of emotion, and full of the kind of fire we need more of when it comes to righting the wrongs Bush has brought on us all!
Posted by
Snave |
3:27 PM
Thanks...I'm so insecure.
Posted by
sumo |
6:29 PM