On August 19, 2010 in the early morning local time in Iraq (evening of August 18 in the U.S.), the last battalion of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry division, was on its way home. They traveled in Stryker combat vehicles in a convoy to Kuwait where they had their documents checked and their possessions checked for contraband as soon as they crossed the Kuwait border. There are a few thousand more combat troops who will be leaving over the next several days.
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The convoy proceeded to Camp Virginia in Kuwait, and from there, military personnel will fly home to the U.S. Their retrievable equipment will be loaded aboard ships to the U.S. A great deal of the equipment our military brought to Iraq will remain there.
These are the last of the combat troops. The first combat troops to leave began withdrawing about a year ago.
Most wars in modern times, meaning ever since the end of World War II, are often entered into for political reasons and are ended or drawn down by political agreements or decisions, not whether we won or lost a military victory.
The only wars we’ve fought during my lifetime (born 1960) that were predicated by attacks of an aggressor are the Gulf war in 1991 and the Afghanistan war after we were attacked on American soil by al-Qaeda on 9/11/2001.
The end of the first Gulf war was decided when Saddam Hussein and his troops were driven out of Kuwait back to Baghdad. Some U.S. forces remained behind to enforce sanctions against Iraq and keep Iraq within its borders.
The only military victory I can foresee in the Afghanistan war is the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden, and perhaps his next highest ranking subordinate. Leaving Afghanistan won’t happen until NATO forces reach specific goals, like the Afghan army and police can handle security without our help, and/or many towns and cities have reestablished government and services, and provide a better choice than the Taliban.
Or, we may reach our target deadline and pull out before “conditions on the ground” criteria are fully met. The fact is we can’t hold the Afghans’ hand forever. They have to step up and take charge at some point. Us leaving will force them to do so, which is what is happening in Iraq right now.
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Even though this is a politically agreed upon troop withdrawal, it isn’t time for politics. It’s time to be thankful that our brave men and women are coming home, and to remember that 4,415 U.S. troops didn’t make it home from Iraq alive.
This brings to my mind the end of the Vietnam War, and that my parents kept us home from school that morning in 1975 to watch it on TV. My dad was in the Navy then, and he called his commanding officer to get permission to stay home with us to discuss the significance and gravity of that event. We were teenagers and they felt it was very important that we understand what was happening and why.
It’s time to remember that we have a large number of battle-hardened war veterans reentering civilian life who will need care, our support and our help. We the people need to help make sure our veterans are getting what they need, whether it be their GI bill benefits for college, job placement assistance, or medical and psychiatric treatment from the VA.
It’s time to remember that some of these troops will be retrained, re-equipped and redeployed to Afghanistan in as few as 6 months.
It’s also time to remember that 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq to assist and support the Iraqi army and police, and to work with the U.S. State Department to rebuild a successful Iraqi government and society. We are pulling combat troops out without Iraq having established a fully functional government, which I will discuss in another article. Iraq is still a very dangerous place. Combat may be over, but the possibility of violence and more American deaths is very real.
Operation Iraqi Freedom won’t officially end until the ceremony on August 31, 2010. The mission then changes to Operation New Dawn, one of training and support with “non-combat” troops. That’s kind of an oxymoron to me. A military troop is by definition capable of combat. The U.S. State Department will take over, and the Defense Department will end primary control of non-combat operations.
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