What if the Iraqi Parliament does allow for the 58 bases left in Iraq after American withdrawal in 2011?
Nervously he asks:
What about those of us who remember 2011 Iraq as a place where the only unifying factor in society was the pathological hatred of Western soldiers in general and Americans above all else?
What about the instant Iraqi - and indeed Arab - culture hero status of the bloke who threw his shoe at President Bush during a press conference? Even the Iraqi President who was only in power because of the US led military effort publicly and privately condemned the US presence.
The war - and I really do seem to remember a war - was not over, and American troops were bullet/IED magnets as it was reported. I particularly remember reports that US patrols in Baghdad to try to calm the place down were eventually cancelled as too dangerous. As soon as the US troops stopped patrolling the situation calmed down a lot. Not totally, but dramatically all the same.
Discussions of this subject never mention the war. I am trying to avoid Fawlty Towers flashbacks here. Yes General Petreus paid - bribed - the Iraqi Sunni's enough for them to stop shooting at his men, but the Shiites religious militias didn't. Or at least that is the way I remember it being reported.
Was the MSM just making up the war or is this site full of Iraq war vets who remember it differently enough that staying seems like something other than a way to keep a steady stream of flag draped coffins coming home?