Iraq Restricts U.S. Forces

Over the past several weeks, the focus of most Americans as it concerns the middle east and war has been focused on Afghanistan. After all, whether the present administration wanted to admit it or not, the previous administration had won the war in Iraq. By the time Barack Obama took office in January, Iraq had become a capitulated country that had seen it's terrorist insurgency driven from the cities and hunted down and destroyed by the surge that the former administration fought to see through to the end.

That was then, this is now.

While the media has been distracted by health care and cap and trade and the Sotomayor nomination, there has been a rise of attacks in Afghanistan. And little notice has been given to Iraq and the rising attacks on our troops there. And as this article points out, there is a lot going on in Iraq that should be setting off alarms in the minds of most Americans.

<span style="font-style:italic;">In a curt missive issued by the Baghdad Operations Command on July 2 -- the day after Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal of U.S. troops to bases outside city centers -- Iraq's top commanders told their U.S. counterparts to "stop all joint patrols" in Baghdad. It said U.S. resupply convoys could travel only at night and ordered the Americans to "notify us immediately of any violations of the agreement." </span>

This directive passed with little or no notice here in America, but our troops on the ground and their commanders noted it and it's effect and results rather quickly.

<span style="font-style:italic;">If extremists realize "some of the limitations that we have, that's a vulnerability they could use against us," a senior U.S. military intelligence official said. "The fact is that some of these are very politically sensitive targets" thought to be close to the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. </span>

If extremist realize some of the limitations we have?

I submit, all they have to do is read and watch the daily press briefings coming out of Washington and if that doesn't clearly demonstrate to them the limitations that we have, then I don't know what does.

From the minute Barack Obama won the election to this day, he has reiterated almost daily, his intentions of abandoning the hard fought achievements and efforts to sustain Iraq as a stabilized and no longer threatening country. He has made it perfectly clear that he is willing to turn the country over as soon as possible and remove all American presence whether the Iraqis are prepared to handle it or not.

And from the looks of the past several weeks and the increases in terrorist bombing and attacks, it seems rather obvious that the Iraqis are not prepared to assume the responsibility. Yet Maliki and this puppet regime that was installed seem hell bent to take over and get the Americans out. Which causes me to wonder....is there another agenda lurking in the wings? Does Maliki and his new buddy in Iran have bigger plans that need the removal of the Americans to accomplish the final goal?

I certainly think so. People tend to forget, but Iraq is a predominantly Shite country. (As is Iran). It was Saddam's Sunni's who reined supreme over Iraq for thirty years and went to war with the Iranian Shites.  And now the worm has turned. In the absence of a deposed Saddam Hussein and an American military presence in the region to quell the shite insurgents? All that is required for a unified Iraq/Iran to emerge is a simple agreement between the two Shite majorities. And that is precisely what I see about to occur in Iraq under the tutelage of one Barack Obama.

Mean while the American military commanders on the ground in Iraq  can see it. They know what is happening and what is about to happen and why.

<span style="font-style:italic;">The Americans have been taken aback by the new restrictions on their activities. The Iraqi order runs "contrary to the spirit and practice of our last several months of operations," Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, commander of the Baghdad division, wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Washington Post.

"Maybe something was 'lost in translation,' " Bolger wrote. "We are not going to hide our support role in the city. I'm sorry the Iraqi politicians lied/dissembled/spun, but we are not invisible nor should we be." He said U.S. troops intend to engage in combat operations in urban areas to avert or respond to threats, with or without help from the Iraqis.

"This is a broad right and it demands that we patrol, raid and secure routes as necessary to keep our forces safe," he wrote. "We'll do that, preferably partnered." </span>

The apparent wish and desire of more than a few Americans for the past eight years is about to become a reality IMO. From those like John Kerry to the so called celebrities in Hollywood and leading straight back to the present occupant of the White House.  They have all hungered for a return to the memories and history of Vietnam. They have never ceased in their comparisons and their desires to make the Iraq war into this generation's Vietnam.

They have fought long and hard against this nation and it's citizen soldiers and now they are finally beginning to realize the fruits of their labors. Their guy is in the White House now and they have long been on record with him as to what they want to see come to pass as an epitaph for this war in Iraq.

So prepare yourselves ladies and gentlemen, the body count is getting ready to be something reminiscent of the heady days of 1969. Too bad Walter won't be around to cover it this time. But we will still get our fill of body bags and caskets and casualty counts on the evening news daily.

That's what these people want and that is what they will insure becomes the reality. And so too will be the epitaph of Afghanistan eventually. Until the point is finally reached when once again, another rag tag band of heathen fascists and communist can stand waving their flags and grinning over the burned out heaps of what once were the machines of American power.