“America’s relationship [with Iraq] will wither into the same uneasy state of half-antagonistic, half-opportunistic status that we enjoy with the other autocrats in the Middle East. Maliki will continue to expertly play the U.S. off the Iranians and vice versa. U.S. military sales and oil purchases will assure him the soft landing someday of a medical visa to the United States à la Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, and not the sanctioned disposal awaiting Bashar al-Assad of Syria.”
and now the whole thing is over, i guess
Next year we are to bring all the soldiers home
For lack of money, and it is all right.
Places they guarded, or kept orderly,
We want the money for ourselves at home
Instead of working. And this is all right.
It’s hard to say who wanted it to happen,
But now it’s been decided nobody minds.
The places are a long way off, not here,
Which is all right, and from what we hear
The soldiers there only made trouble happen.
Next year we shall be easier in our minds.
Next year we shall be living in a country
That brought its soldiers home for lack of money.
The statues will be standing in the same
Tree-muffled squares, and look nearly the same.
Our children will not know it’s a different country.
All we can hope to leave them now is money.
—Philip Larkin, 1969
(h/t jenvaf)
the whimper
as maliki and obama put a nice spin on the war’s end, let’s remember that it didn’t have to go this way.
“Overall, there will be about 16,000 American Embassy personnel in Iraq, including a large number of civilian contractors as security guards. Currently there are some 24,000 American troops in Iraq.”
— elisabeth bumiller, “some troops to stay in iraq as trainers, top officer says.” hachi machi!
“Americans have been ambivalent in different ways: a majority wanted the war [in Iraq], but not blindly and deliriously; then, as years passed, a majority wanted the war to end, but not in complete revulsion. Few Americans had anything personally at stake, other than their views of their country, so it’s fitting that the U.S. war should end with hardly anyone paying attention.”
— george packer, nailing it
hey everybody! i wrote an article about how we should never forget how crazy the iraq war made us in the middle of the decade — and how this one insane graphic novel from 2006 (but that’s set in 2011) acts as a reminder! and there’s pictures! read it here, if you like! and don’t be afraid to, y’know, tell everyone you know about it!
“‘For nearly a decade, our mission in Iraq has been to root out those who would choose violence over peace, to create a stable Iraqi government, and to transfer power to an incorruptible civilian police force,’ Obama said. ‘And, in a manner of speaking, we sort of did some of that, right? More or less?’”
— as good a time as any to remember this gem.
some are big and some are small
afghanistan + iraq + libya + drone war in yemen + drone war in somalia + drone war in pakistan + troops in uganda = seven wars
“An Iraqi who works for the U.S., and who spent the month of May in hiding after getting a threat, told Arango that, after the last American units leave later this year, ‘it’s going to be the worst time for those people who worked for the Americans.’ This man has been waiting on his visa request since 2009. And yet the Obama Administration has done no reckoning, no list-gathering, no contingency planning. Just as time runs out on these Iraqis, the doors have slammed in their faces.”
— george packer, killing it, as usual.
