Mission Accomplished...At Last!

President Obama, following through on his campaign promise: All our troops will be out of 

Iraq by the end of the year. 

I'd like to start this post with something I've noticed. I can see what countries my blog is being viewed from. Obviously most of the views are here in America, but I have gotten two views from Germany. That is kind of cool. If you are from Germany and reading this, you should comment. Err....

Hallo deutschen Freunde! Bitte hinterlassen Sie einen Kommentar, wenn Siebetrachten dieses Blog sind!

Back to English. I am thrilled about today's news coming from Washington D.C. President Obama has fulfilled his commitment and is recalling all troops from Iraq by the end of the year. Finally an end to this misguided war. Of course it is a bit more complicated, in 2008 the then president George W. Bush, agreed to something called a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), where by 2011, a majority of U.S. troops would be out of Iraq unless another agreement was met. This was a unilateral decision made by the White house and Congress was not involved what-so-ever. Obama could have extended the SOFA and agreed to keep a number of troops in Iraq. However certain agreements could not be met (something to do with immunity for troops) and  in a much more eloquent professorial manner, Obama appropriately responded somthing along the lines of "ok". So our troops are coming home.

Why I like the move: 1)Not a fan of war, not going to lie. 2) Finally bringing an end to a conflict that was built on fabrications - there were no WMDs  in Iraq and Iraq had nothing to do with al Qaeda and the tragedies of September 11th. 3) Instead of spending billions rebuilding a country on the other side of the planet, we can spend it here rebuilding our country -which needs it badly. 4) It's not like keeping troops in Iraq for any longer would have solved long term problems in that country, and honestly, I think most Americans don't really care about Iraq's problems anymore.

I'm still not sure why we ever went into Iraq. Was it to expand the powers of the executive branch, go after dwindling oil supplies, to fulfill a personal vendetta, global domination or a combination of all those? Either way, its a good day in my book when any action is made to reduce violence and get our friends and family members out of harms way. Welcome back to all our armed forces who there served overseas. Thank you for all your sacrifice. Your accomplishments will never be forgotten.

-Cheers