Reply #134: What IS the reason military personnel

[DirkGently]

are still in Germany, Japan et al?... and why is that okay, again? South Korea fears North Korea, and so may want us there. As to the others, do they all want us there? I seem to remember both Germans and Japanese suggesting we were not entirely welcome, and they had "rebuilt" sufficiently that we could leave any time, thank you.

We need to unpack this blithe comparison (by many) to our post WWII occupation activities a bit.

How "over" is it when we are making it very clear that we intend to control Iraq's political and military future?

Iraq is not an enemy nation we need to keep an eye on. "Rebuilding" is a nice idea, I suppose, given that we wrecked the place. But 50,000 troops remaining, along with thousands or tens of thousands of other private contractors, does not speak to rebuilding so much as to controlling.

This is a positive step and a good thing. President Obama has kept part of an important promise.

But the thing that we actually need to do is get OUT of the Middle East, stop fighting wars there, and stop trying to control the region with military force. Ending active combat operations in Iraq -- something we NEVER should have been doing in the first place -- is a small step out of a huge problem.