[icer190]

A date has been set for US troops to be removed, December 31, 2011.

More information here

[deraj]

placing US forces in Iraq under the authority of the Iraqi government

US forces to hand over their bases to Iraq during the course of 2009


Seriously? That's just.... brutal. How will people in the army react to be under the authority of another government? We're just.... handing everything over. It just seems wrong to me. They're in the US military, not the Iraqi military.

[icer190]

Its not like they're not used to it, UN, NATO, etc.

[deraj]

Yeah, but that isn't one country. That's a conglomerate where America still has quite a bit of control. (Veto ability)

[Vallessian]

Not sure I like setting dates for this kind of thing.

[ForbiddenKnowledge]

Originally Posted by Vall

Not sure I like setting dates for this kind of thing.

I like to see a timeline for the most desirable removal, but I agree. Its hard to set a specific date, if the situation gets worse and we are needed there, then we have to stay. Which then pisses off people who believed that the date was set in stone.

Its the same with the British date. We've started to hand over bases are responsiblilities to the Iraqi security, but you should never set an exact date.

[LordDemon]

Originally Posted by Deraj

Yeah, but that isn't one country. That's a conglomerate where America still has quite a bit of control. (Veto ability)

How about cases like Japan, Korea or Germany where US has bases and troops? There it is only one country.

[Farseer_Emlyn]

Good. It's about time. We need an artificial time here because the Iraqi government is an epic fail in terms of security and the US forces shouldn't be forced to bear the brunt of security responsibility. Not to mention the fact that this whole debacle should have never been started in the first place. But if we were to leave it up to the Iraqis and the insurgents to decide when we leave...it would be never.

This is the international equivalent of telling your kid to finish picking up their toys or you're going to leave for McDonalds without them...except that we really can leave them. They've now got a little over two full years to get their shit together or they're on their own.

Contrast this war with something like...WWII...where in 5 years the Allies beat the hell out of three countries in four theaters and you'll understand why it's a shame that we've been bogged down playing police in Iraq.

[deraj]

Originally Posted by LordDemon

How about cases like Japan, Korea or Germany where US has bases and troops? There it is only one country.

We base troops. Under our control. Do you understand what a US base is? It is technically American soil, no matter what country. In Iraq it isn't going to be that way.

Originally Posted by Aureus

Contrast this war with something like...WWII...where in 5 years the Allies beat the hell out of three countries in four theaters and you'll understand why it's a shame that we've been bogged down playing police in Iraq.

In World War 2 we had actual enemies, not phantoms.