I just wish my grammar wasn't such a mess. That's what I get for answering political threads when I am tired and drunk.dsheinem wrote: I couldn't agree with you more on all these points.
While the suspicion that this move is being made is a wholly political one is an easy position to assume, it's important to remember that there is more to any military campaign than the President's will.
While President Obama has the final say as commander and chief, he has had that say the entirety of his presidency and could have made this decision at any time, were it so simple as scoring points at the polls for himself and the Democratic Party. The man is not a military trained leader, though. He has numerous Generals and Admirals advising him and helping him shape his military policies.
Until recently, there was divided opinion as to whether we'd accomplished the goals necessary to avoid the region descending into sectarian chaos the moment we leave. The consensus among many is that with Arab Spring still in full swing, the anger that unemployed Islamic men in many of the countries that had been supplying insurgents for battle in Iraq has been directed elsewhere: Into demonstrating, into nation building, into fighting their own governments, etc.
As democratic movements in the Middle East and Northern Africa have been causing the entire region to fluctuate, so too have levels of violence against US forces and Iraqi Security Forces dropped.
Though I will forever hold President George W. Bush in contempt, the final irony of his Presidency is that what his administration tried to do (create a wave of democratic movements in the Middle East by interfering in Iraq and Syria) has actually occurred after a fashion.
While our departure from Iraq is definitely in part politically and economically motivated, it still bears mentioning that we are withdrawing largely because there is nothing left for us to do there that the Iraqi's can't be expected to do for themselves.
...also, I believe that US troops will probably be 'invited' to the Northern Mexican states within the next three years, but that's my own theory.
