From the AP:
Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq’s ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.
It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting…
Which is almost inevitable now that we’re no longer on a combat mission. The war will not be amenable to liberal conceptions – it will be fought as a war, until one side or the other wins. You don’t just “end” a war.
Obama made a grave error in making a big speech about the supposed end of our combat role. Our combat roll ends when the last American soldier leaves – until then, the combat goes on. The speech should have been saved to welcome the last troops home – which probably could be accomplished fairly swiftly, except that now our actions have encouraged the enemy and caused a bit of political drift in Iraq as they are unsure of their position.
The President must start to understand that our goal is not to end the fighting, as a thing. Our goal is to win – President Bush understood this and thus we were able to crush the Islamist insurgency. Now the remnants of that are trying to re-start, hoping that our draw down and the clear desire to be done with it on the part of Obama have given them a chance to re-establish their presence. A firm declaration that we are, as we were before, committed to victory will be the best means of heartening our allies in Iraq and discouraging our enemies.
Let’s hope Obama sees the light here.
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