Editorial: When do they leave?

"American troops are still in Iraq on the 15th anniversary of an invasion, the pretext for which was the entirely trumped-up claim that America’s iconic foe Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," Joseph Giglio (WELLESLEY TOWNSMAN) observes.


May 12th, Iraq is set to yet again hold elections.

The western press is acting like this really says something.

Does it?

If so, what?

We don't see any thing in the coverage suggesting that this election means US troops leave.

It's now 15 years and counting and US troops are still on Iraqi soil.

What's the point when they leave?  What are the markers that say it's time to go?  All this time later, no one seems to know.



Kevin Baron (DEFENSE ONE) notes:

The fact is there’s no known mission end for Iraq, yet. Top commanders, waiting to be told by Washington to get bigger or smaller, just keep going. And that’s the worry of Americans back home, who largely marked the invasion’s 15th anniversary — if they noted it at all — by wondering what the U.S. is still doing there, and how long it’ll last.

As Joshua Keating (SLATE) noted several weeks ago, there are no plans for US troops to leave.  This is the world we're living in now?  We're okay with that?  A peace movement is needed now more than ever.