We’ve kept troops in Germany since 1944, but a decade in Iraq is too long? Leaving Afghanistan I understand. It’s a pity, considering all the Americans who died there, but staying isn’t producing much of value to anyone.

Quite the opposite, it seems to me, in Iraq. But Obumbles is nothing if not inept. So we’re leaving, largely to keep the Donkey base happy. But I won’t be surprised if it becomes necessary to return before the 2010s are out.

“It was misguided to turn American soldiers into potential hostages to Iranian terror. It’s a hundred times MORE misguided now to pull our forces out of Iraq: we need the capacity to deter Iran from swinging its weight in Iraq and turning it into a Persian satrapy. (The Baghdad government might not like this, but if we really want to, we have ways to persuade regimes like this to cooperate.)”

After all, if we can cooperate in Daffy Gadaffi’s execution… And if Obamalot must remain gutless on Iran, at least they can pull our forces out of Europe. They’ve been there, and very expensively, since 1945.

Well, nothing on the Islamic war against the West. It continues. Our all-volunteer military, while benefiting from a new generation of volunteers, remains stressed with two major campaigns and a host of smaller ones. For the first time, the National Guard and Reserves have become continuously- active parts of the active-duty force.

But the war is not (officially) called the War on Terror anymore (which, though clumsy and avoiding the main [Muslim] issue, was, at least, descriptive)—thanks to the Dumbocrats and their academic, Hollywood and media surrogates, who’ve impeded it every step of the way.

They’ve always been more concerned with nomenclature than reality. Green energy, anyone?

The war itself is still pretty much of a loser. Caroline Glick says it’s because Bush Jr.’s toughest words never got translated into action, the USA still refuses to admit it’s fighting radical Islam, and appeasement of Muslim countries in the Middle East remains the order of the day. Sigh.

Airline travel has become (if possible) even more onerous. We take off our shoes now, in order to get aboard, in honor of would-be terrorist Richard Reid (serving a life sentence in Britain, which means he’ll probably be out soon). Also no bottles of liquid allowed unless they’re purchased within the gate area, in honor of someone I forget, there have been so many of them.

For a long time afterward most previously-open military installations were closed to the public. Austin’s Camp Mabry recently reopened, making its good military history museum accessible once more. Fort Hood, after enduring its own terrorist shoot-em-up by a Muslim major, still is closed—probably for good.

One thing that hasn’t changed: Israel’s perpetual 9/11, a suicide bomber here, a suicide bomber there, and, as always, few media elsewhere pay any attention—except to write pitying profile stories about the Muslim bombers, only rarely about their Jewish victims.

UPDATE:  The Third Jihad, a film still worth watching, for a reminder of the war that likely will still be with our children’s children.

“Whenever the country was in trouble, our community had to suffer in this manner, because the government could not grapple with the problems facing it.  So it finds a scapegoat to busy the people with; to focus their attention on something else.  And if arbitrary arrest meant only being in jail, it might be tolerable.  But in abnormal circumstances it always meant torture also, and in some cases the victims were never seen again.”

From “All Waiting to be Hanged,” by Max Sawdayee, a former Iraqi Jew’s poignant diary. It’s pre-POD and therefore now out of print (one of the little-known drawbacks of “traditional” publishing), but excerpts are here.

News and analysis from Iraq the Model.

I just hope the fools of Obamalot stick to their pledge not to put ground troops into Libya.

So the Democrats and the Hildabeast can look decisive, tough, etc.? She/they simply look like stupid warmongers. Backing the Iranian freedom fighters would have been worth something to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, naturally, we didn’t do that.

“The whole of Libya is not worth the bones of a single American pilot.”

I know, I know. It’s all about the damned oil and our (now, thanks to the Democrats) shaky economy. Always the oil. Can’t drill at home, tho. Oh, no.

Army Pvt. Devon J. Harris

Died November 27, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

Age 24, of Mesquite, Tex.; assigned to Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, at Ft. Polk, La.; died Nov. 27 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with a rocket-propelled grenade.

Read it all.

When W was president, the legacy media was clamoring to photograph the latest dead hero’s arrival home. Now that a Democrat is, there’s a blackout on that aspect of the war. Strange how that works, eh?

“U.S. servicemen and -women are being dispatched to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan where they are fighting Iranian soldiers and assets in a regional war with the Islamic Republic that our officials dare not discuss, lest they have to do something about it.”

An analysis of the dump that’s worth a look.