All Troops Coming Home from Iraq


HoosierGuy
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After nine years the U.S. troops will leave Iraq and all will be out by January 1st except those staying for the U.S. Embassy. Thank goodness this modern Vietnam is coming to end for our U.S. soldiers.

Obama announces end of Iraq war, troops to return home by year end - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

President Obama announced Friday that the United States will withdraw nearly all troops from Iraq by the end of the year, effectively bringing the long and polarizing war in Iraq to an end.

"After nearly 9 years, America's war in Iraq will be over," said Mr. Obama.

He said the last American troops will depart the country by January 1 "with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops."

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I'm so glad they're coming home. But what are they all going to do when they get here? Not that I'm saying they should stay there for that reason, because this is absolutely where they belong. I just wonder what will happen to the unemployment rate from a general perspective.

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God bless those who have been touched by this conflict. God bless the families and the soldiers. THANK YOU for your service. These men and women are going to be coming home, and they will STILL need our support. A lot of them have injuries we cannot see from the outside. I'm talking about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We have to be loving and accept them even if they are having a difficult time.

A bumpersticker I saw the other day, "If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading this in English, thank a soldier." :)

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God bless those who have been touched by this conflict. God bless the families and the soldiers. THANK YOU for your service. These men and women are going to be coming home, and they will STILL need our support. A lot of them have injuries we cannot see from the outside. I'm talking about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We have to be loving and accept them even if they are having a difficult time.

A bumpersticker I saw the other day, "If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading this in English, thank a soldier." :)

This is so true. I have had two sons, a daughter and a soninlaw over there. None were harmed, much anyway, physically but one is very badly wounded from ptsd. It is a constant struggle for him every day and for the ones around him. He has told me he would do it again without hesitation.

He has said many times how much he appreciates those who remember the soldiers and what they do.

As a mom I thank you for remembering them.

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Yup. My SIL was just in Iraq, and the "base" she was at was closed up (for Americans at least, I think it was just handed over to the Iraqi army, rather than actually *closed*) while she was there. They've been transitioning things over to Iraqi control for a while now, so I'm not surprised that the deadline is so soon.

Also, we have a lot of contractors over there, so I wonder if *they* will still be there for a while, doing the remainder of the "clean up", after the troops have come home.

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Pres. Obama wanted assurances that the contractors would be given amnesty but apparently the Iraqs are not willing to do that so I am thinking they will be out as well.

They have been turning responsibility over to Iraqs for a long time now. I am not holding out much hope they will do well with it but it is their country and their responsibility so am glad we are getting out.

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As an additional side note, I hope this helps to reign in some governmental spending...

It won't.

Disaster, defense, peace, research, education, health, infrastructure... All are great things to throw money into. All are easily turned into money sinks, and if its not one it will be the other.

We werent exactly going out of debt Or even breaking even before alquida/taliban declared war on us.

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I'm so glad they're coming home. But what are they all going to do when they get here? Not that I'm saying they should stay there for that reason, because this is absolutely where they belong. I just wonder what will happen to the unemployment rate from a general perspective.

What will happen to the unemployment rate? So long as the government reduces spending proportionately it will go down! Even if they don't it's still positive. Public money spent supporting the troops will now not be needed. Soldiers who once fought will now add useful capital to the economy. (This idea that there is a limited amount of work must go away.) Oh, there may be a very short time where the public sector needs to adjust to account for the influx to the labor market but other than this short term issue it is all positive. Bring them home!

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(This idea that there is a limited amount of work must go away.)

It's a little more complicated than that. There's a statistic in economics called the job seeker's ratio. Here's a graph:

Posted Image

That number means that for every 4.6 job seekers (in August, at least) there is one job. Basically, roughly 3 in 4 job seekers will not find a job no matter what they do. I think this issue of jobs for our troops needs to be taken a bit more seriously.

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Last fact I saw presented was that at least 15,000 personnel will still be in Iraq, and those are just the "official" numbers. Unofficially, how many private contractors working on government/defense related contracts will also remain in Iraq? Calling a military base an "embassy" does not magically negate the fact that an occupying force will still remain in country.

The "war" may be "over" (if you fight an undeclared war, is it still a "war"?), but the occupation has just begun.

Ah, if we could only believe everything we hear on the evening news.

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Last fact I saw presented was that at least 15,000 personnel will still be in Iraq, and those are just the "official" numbers. Unofficially, how many private contractors working on government/defense related contracts will also remain in Iraq? Calling a military base an "embassy" does not magically negate the fact that an occupying force will still remain in country.

The "war" may be "over" (if you fight an undeclared war, is it still a "war"?), but the occupation has just begun.

Ah, if we could only believe everything we hear on the evening news.

Frankly I doubt many since I read that Iraq refuses to grant an amnesty to them.

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Frankly I doubt many since I read that Iraq refuses to grant an amnesty to them.

That's right. Since Iraq refused to grant US troops what is called a Status of Forces Agreement (unhelpfully called a SOFA), US troops cannot stay in Iraq. This agreement was absolutely vital for a continuing presence in Iraq, but without it, there will be at the end of this year zero US troops in Iraq. From what I've read, President Obama did want to keep a small contingent of forces in Iraq, but without the SOFA it's impossible. While I'm sure Obama is glad to make the announcement, I can't imagine that this was his best case scenario.

As for contractors, who knows? It's a pretty dodgy legal situation with them anyway.

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