As bombs fall over Iraq, old emotions rise in U.S.

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http://hamptonroads.com/2014/08/bombs-fall-over-iraq-old-emotions-rise-us



An armored vehicle belonging to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters rushes to a bombing site as smoke rises after airstrikes targeting Islamic State militants near the Khazer checkpoint outside of the city of Irbil in northern Iraq, Friday, Aug. 8, 2014.

As bombs fall over Iraq, old emotions rise in U.S.
By Jesse Washington
The Associated Press
© August 9, 2014

It was supposed to be over, America's war in Iraq. So all the old emotions boiled up anew as Americans absorbed the news that U.S. bombs were again striking targets in the nation where the United States led an invasion in 2003, lost almost 4,500 troops in the fight to stabilize and liberate it and then left nearly three years ago.

In interviews across the country, from the 9/11 memorial in New York to a Midwest state fair and an Arizona war monument, Americans voiced conflicted feelings as airstrikes began Friday, ordered by President Barack Obama who had fulfilled a campaign promise when he withdrew the last U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011.

Many supporting the decision to bomb now did so for contrasting reasons. Those opposed said the U.S. never should have invaded Iraq in the first place, but they also struggled with America's obligation to the ravaged, upended nation, which has endured violence between rival Islamic sects and, recently, the ruthless onslaught of the militant group calling itself the Islamic State.

There was one constant across Americans' opinions: Nobody could envision a concrete solution to Iraq's problems.