09 August 2010By Sahib Mustaqim Bleher
Us President Obama has just squared the circle: he
announced the end of the war and all combat operations
in Iraq by the end of the month and in the same breath
stated that most of the US soldiers currently engaged
in those operations would remain in the country to
assist the Iraqi army and to involve in
counter-terrorism operations. Since his predecessor
Bush had foolishly declared the war over prematurely,
the entanglement of US army personnel in Iraq has
continued for years with numerous military and civil
casualties, and there is no real end in sight. The US
is legally required under international law to
withdraw from Iraq since its mandate under already
doubtful UN authorisations has already run out, and
now the extension granted by the Iraqi puppet
government is also coming to an end. Back at home,
Americans are equally weary of the constant drain of
the Iraqi operations on American lives and funds.
Basically, what Obama is telling us is that he thinks
- and knows - that the people who elected him are
stupid and will fall for whatever rhetoric they are
given, at least for some time. Moving the goal post,
redefining objectives, relabelling facts has become
the government response to any situation which has
become unpalatable.
Any child can do the maths that if 65,000 American
troops are currently stationed in Iraq involved in
combat operations and to train the Iraqi army, and
50,000 of them will stay on to involve in
counter-terrorism operations and train the Iraqi army,
then nothing much has changed, except that the enemy
has been relabelled from a combatant under the laws of
war to a terrorist or "illegal combatant", the term
first coined for the detainees held in limbo, and
illegally under international law, in Guantanamo Bay,
which Obama also promised to close but didn't.
Those 15,000 soldiers leaving Iraq are actually
being redeployed since the US is boosting its presence
there by an additional 30,000 troops as, according to
Obama, they face "huge challenges" there.
Afghanistan is an even more deadly place for American
soldiers where they are fighting yet another war that
isn't officially a war but another counter-terrorism
operation with equally unclear and non-defined
objectives. No doubt the US government knows only too
well that it can't win on either of the two battle
fields, but the logic is that if you don't define your
operations as a war and don't state a clear war
objective, then you can't possibly loose either. So it
is not until the casualties keep mounting that the
American public will eventually put more pressure on
their government and tell them that rhetoric is not
enough as an exit strategy.
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments