Don\u2019t be absurd.<\/p>\n
Either one of two situations was the case when Obama began the troop withdrawal. <\/p>\n
Option one: \u00a0Iraq was more or less at peace, and tolerably stable. \u00a0Al Qaeda was vanquished, a democratic government in place. \u00a0There was no war, there were just US troops stationed in Iraq to prevent a new war from starting, in much the same way as American troops remained stationed in Germany long after the Nazis were defeated (and my Dad, one of those troops, likes to say that the war wasn\u2019t entirely Cold, but that the Russians would periodically lob some missiles across the border, and the U.S. would respond). \u00a0In that scenario, Obama\u2019s action in removing American troops from Iraq was not \u201cending the war,\u201d but simply just the blander \u201crestationing the troops.\u201d<\/p>\n
(This explanation asks us to believe that Iraq\u2019s present troubles are wholly unconnected to anything going on while U.S. troops were stationed in Iraq.)<\/p>\n
Or option two: \u00a0Iraq wasn\u2019t at peace. \u00a0The situation could at best be described as a lull in the fighting. \u00a0Did Obama\u2019s removal of the troops end the war? \u00a0Hey, guys, in case you haven\u2019t noticed, there\u2019s a war going on now. \u00a0Obama\u2019s action could at best be described as \u201cending U.S. participation in the war,\u201d in much the same way as was true in Vietnam, where the war didn\u2019t actually end until North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam. <\/p>\n
So, how do we get the journalists to fix their stylebook, and replace \u201cObama ended the war in Iraq\u201d with \u201cObama ended U.S. participation in the war\u201d? \u00a0Do we need a clever twitter hashtag, or a witty social media campaign?<\/p>\n
(Come to think of it, we have troops in South Korea. \u00a0If Obama restationed these troops, and the Norks came swarming across the border, Obama wouldn\u2019t be ending the war, but might well be considered to be the immediate cause of a new war!)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don\u2019t be absurd. Either one of two situations was the case when Obama began the troop withdrawal. Option one: \u00a0Iraq was more or less at peace, and tolerably stable. \u00a0Al Qaeda was vanquished, a democratic government in place. \u00a0There was no war, there were just US troops stationed in Iraq to prevent a new war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n