General David Petraeus, the man commanding the Iraq War, called Tuesday for an open-ended suspension of the United States withdrawals this summer, arguing that an immediate withdrawal would destroy security “gains,” according to the Associated Press.
Gen. Petraeus told a Senate committee that he recommends a “45-day period of consolidation and evaluation.” This will happen once the extra combat forces that President Bush ordered to Iraq last year have completed their pullout in July. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Petraeus described the security situation in Iraq as improved since he last appeared before Congress this past September. President Bush is expected to accept Petraeus’ recommendation.
It bothers me slightly that Gen. Petraeus understands that we are in a predicament and will “pause” our mission in Iraq, but will not pull our troops out. I will honestly admit, it is an idealistic thought to want ALL of the troops withdrawn. In a perfect world, I would want this to happen as well. However, since we do not live in a perfect world, the best method is to withdraw troops in increments. Instead of taking this pause, I wish we could somehow admit that we went into this war for essentially no reason. Oh yes, I forgot, it was to fight the evil terrorists. Either way, I hope this means the United States are a step closer to realizing that we lost 4,000 troops for nothing.
I discovered hip hop duo Blue Scholars back in college, when they performed on my campus and I heard a couple of their songs (my favorites include Blink and Motion Movement off their first, self-titled album). If you haven't heard them - they're a big deal on the West Coast (they're from Seattle), and sadly undiscovered by the rest of the U.S., though pretty well known by a lot of Asian-Americans.
I was just emailed a link to their latest music video for their song Back Home on their new album, Bayani. Back Home is a heartbreaking anti-war hip-hop song about the need to bring our troops back home, out of this endless, needless war. Check it out - I'm not one for emotional films or videos, but this one was particularly well done and really made an impact.
It hits home the Campus Progress, and general progressive movement, message of Support Our Troops, Bring 'em Home. If you don't already know about the work that we're doing, check out our Iraq Action Camp and also our Iraq Lobby Day in association with the National Student Conference - all are this summer, and all offer travel scholarships for you to come out to DC and end this war.
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