U.S. hands massive base over to Iraq

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story
By Agence France-Presse

U.S. forces have handed Joint Base Balad, which was once one of the world’s busiest airports and housed some 36,000 personnel, over to Iraqi control, a US military spokesman said on Wednesday.

“We handed over Joint Base Balad (JBB) yesterday,” the spokesman said, adding that at its peak, the base to the north of Baghdadhoused “28,000 uniformed personnel and 8,000 civilian contractors.”

“It was the second-largest base (for US forces in Iraq) in terms of personnel,” the spokesman said.

Only the Victory Base Complex on Baghdad’s outskirts once housed more — an estimated 100,000-plus people, some 42,000 of whom were military personnel and over 65,000 others who were contractors, according to Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Brooks, the command historian for United States Forces – Iraq.

More: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/09/u-s-hands-massive-base-over-to-iraq/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

[lib2DaBone]

1. ..and how much did this cost us?

Not to worry.. we'll just cut Medicare for Seniors and Social Security to make up the difference.

[DURHAM D]

2. Couldn't we at least charge them rent? nt

[Warpy]

3. We illegally invaded their country and killed about a million of their citizens

so I think we might leave them something besides gravesites and rubble, don't you?

Every bit of their country that goes back to them gets us that much closer to getting the hell out of a country we should never have gone into except for an old man's greed and a younger man's pride.

[DURHAM D]

4. I thought the sarcasm was obvious.

Guess not...

[jwirr]

5. Yes.