Last Man Or Woman
“We are asking Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?..”
John Kerry said that in 1971. In 2004, he tried to take on that chore. George W. Bush, who spent Vietnam in the reserves, beat Nam Vet Kerry in the election. W kept the war in Babylon going four more years, and dumped it on his successor.
BHO brought the POTUS parade to town yesterday. In a speech downtown, he said the last US combat troops will be leaving Iraq at the end of August. BHO did not comment on Mr. Kerry’s question.
Juan Cole sums things up: “The US did not ‘win’ the Iraq War. It simply outlasted it. It was strong enough to remain, during the Sunni guerrilla war and the Sunni-Shiite Civil War, until the Iraqis exhausted themselves with fighting. But the massive violence provoked by the US occupation so weakened the Bush administration that it was forced to accept a withdrawal timetable dictated by the Iraqi parliament, in part at the insistence of deputies loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and others connected to Iran.”
Pictures for this bit of cheer are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” .
Chamblee54 
I am wondering: What is the purpose of a military? Why should any nation have one?
President Bush said during the 2003 SotU…the one that supposedly mentioned yellowcake, but actually didn’t…
Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike?
You know, I’ve never met an anti-war zealot who was able to put up a credible answer to that. Should we withhold all action until a threat becomes imminent?
I don’t claim to have all the answers.
I like to compare war to abortion. One common thread is the notion that a facility makes the use of the facility more likely.
When you have an abortion clinic downtown, it is more likely that people will use that ghastly alternative.
When you have a war machine, you will be looking for places to use it. You should choose these battles wisely, which obviously was not done in Babylon.