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In reply to the discussion: Look people - the Iraq War was an honest mistake [View all]Vattel
(9,289 posts)If only he had given this speech the day our mission in Iraq ended:
It's harder to end a war than begin one. Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq - all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering - all of it has led to this moment of success.
Now, Iraq is not a perfect place. It has many challenges ahead. But we're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. . . .
This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making. . . .
We remember the early days: the American units that streaked across the sands and skies of Iraq, the battles from Karbala to Baghdad, American troops breaking the back of a brutal dictator in less than a month.
We remember the grind of the insurgency: the roadside bombs, the sniper fire, the suicide attacks.
From the "triangle of death" to the fight for Ramadi, from Mosul in the north to Basra in the south, your will proved stronger than the terror of those who tried to break it.
We remember the spectre of sectarian violence. Al-Qaeda's attacks on mosques and pilgrims, militias that carried out campaigns of intimidation and campaigns of assassination.
And in the face of ancient divisions you stood firm to help those Iraqis who put their faith in the future. . . .
Just last month some of you - members of the Falcon Brigade - turned over the Anbar Operations Center to the Iraqis in the type of ceremony that has become commonplace over these last several months.
In an area that was once the heart of the insurgency, a combination of fighting and training, politics and partnership brought the promise of peace.
And here's what the local Iraqi deputy governor said: "This is all because of the US. forces' hard work and sacrifice."
That's in the words of an Iraqi. Hard work and sacrifice.
Those words only begin to describe the costs of this war and the courage of the men and women who fought it.