In All Honesty, When Do YOU Think We'll Be Completely Out Of Iraq?

[THUNDER HANDS]

Poll question: In All Honesty, When Do YOU Think We'll Be Completely Out Of Iraq?

Meaning, all troops, equipment, everything but our representatives at the U.S. embassy and the soliders who protect them there.

Keep in mind, the first Gulf War, that took 100 days, didn't see all troops and equipment removed until two years after it offically ended.

Assume either Hillary or Obama wins in November.

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Never. Ever.

The US will have some sort of military presence in Iraq, however minimal, forever.

[asdjrocky]

2. In all fairness-

It will take 3 to 6 years to untangle ourselves from this mess. After gulf war 1 we were still pulling equipment out of the desert some 2 years after the war was over, and we were not in Baghdad.

[scarletwoman]

3. We'll be in Iraq until the U.S. Empire falls or life on earth as we know it is totally destroyed,

whichever comes first.

sw

[Swamp Rat]

9. It's starting to look that way.

[sellitman]

4. When our Fascist government is overthrown we will then leave Iraq.

Not a day before.

Our two candidates are part of the Fascist regime so don't hold out hope for change in the next 4 years either.

[Swamp Rat]

10. I expect Bushler to start a war with Iran just before he leaves office.

The White House will be a revolving door of petty dictators until the empire crumbles.

[LWolf]

5. Never.

Or not for at least another 9 years, assuming that someday a president who refuses to be a global bully is elected.

[Bandit]

6. We have fourteen "enduring" bases and largest embassy in the world

We are there for the duration..

[stillcool]

7. When the Empire falls..

The American Empire: 1992 to present
from the book Killing Hope
by William Blum
2004 edition

Following its bombing of Iraq in 1991, the United States wound up with military bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Following its bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the United States wound up with military bases in Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary, Bosnia and Croatia.
Following its bombing of Afghanistan in 2001-2, the United States wound up with military bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Yemen and Djibouti.
Following its bombing and invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States wound up with Iraq
This is not very subtle foreign policy. Certainly not covert. The men who run the American Empire are not easily embarrassed.
And that is the way the empire grows-a base in every neighborhood, ready to be mobilized to put down any threat to imperial rule, real or imagined. Fifty-eight years after world War II ended, the United States still has major bases in Germany and Japan; fifty ears after the end of the Korean War, tens of thousands of American armed forces continue to be stationed in South Korea.
"America will have a continuing interest and presence in Central Asia of a kind that we could not have dreamed of before," US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared in February 2002. Later that year, the US Defense Department announced: "The United States Military is currently deployed to more locations then it has been throughout history."
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/American_Empire_KH2004.html

The Empire of Bases, The Spoils of War
excerpted from the book The Sorrows of Empire
Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
by Chalmers Johnson
Henry Holt, 2004, paper

p285
Roman imperial sorrows mounted up over hundreds of years. Ours are likely to arrive with the speed of FedEx. If present trends continue, four sorrows, it seems to me, are certain to be visited on the United States. Their cumulative impact guarantees that the United States will cease to bear any resemblance to the country once outlined in our Constitution. First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a growing reliance on weapons of mass destruction among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut. Second, there will be a loss of democracy and constitutional rights as the presidency fully eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from an "executive branch" of government into something more like a Pentagonized presidency. Third, an already well-shredded principle of truthfulness will increasingly be replaced by a system of propaganda, disinformation, and glorification of war, power, and the military legions. Lastly, there will be bankruptcy, as we pour our economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchange the education, health, and safety of our fellow citizens.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Chalmers_Johnson/Sorrows_Empire_TSOE.html

[LibDemAlways]

8. As long as there is oil under Iraq, we will be in Iraq. n/t

[TahitiNut]

11. Until "we the people" take responsibility for self-governance ...

... and stop surrendering to the corporatists and "Let George Do It" hate-mongers, the theis country will continue to pursue a foreign policy that's NOTHING more than a coercive force for global corporate colonialism - "human rights" be damned.

[Angela Shelley]

12. Within 100 days, because without pay,

the troops will not stay.