Homecoming

When I was serving in Danang, Vietnam, President Nixon announced the last Marines had left the country. I found that particularly interesting, in that my base was crawling with Marines at the time (for dramatic effect, I should say I was treating one when the announcement was made; but I probably wasn't). Thing was, they were all home-stationed in the Philippines; their status at Danang was "TDY." (Temporary Duty.) Thus, not there. Magical.

Some may have noticed I generally approve of President Obama. But I thought of the above as he announced that all US troops will be out of Iraq by the end of the year. I believe him. I also think there'll be plenty of "contractors" there for years to come; and I don't mean guys building outhouses. I mean whatever today's version of Blackwater troops are: guys carrying weapons, ex-soldiers, wearing armor, driving military-style vehicles, doing soldier stuff. (And there will be Marines on station at the embassy.)

It's not insignificant that troops will be gone; I'm glad for it. But it's not the whole story, is what I'm thinking.

Which means there's even less justification (less than none) at all for the venal (even for him) comments of despicable Mitt "Tell-Me-What-To-Say-And-I'll-Say-It" Romney; and it sorta puts the lie to the complaint by the RWS™ that we're abandoning the country by following the timeline first laid out by Bush and supported by the Iraq government.

There comes a point, after the dust settles, beyond which we can't impose our will on other countries. They have the opportunity, and we've spent enormously, painfully to give it to them; they take it or they don't. Of course, there will never come a point when anything Obama does -- anything at all -- will be acknowledged as positive by the entrenched teabaggRs, in Congress and around the country.