The Reduction in Forces was not a REMOVAL of forces, any more than we ever removed forces from Germany. We will need that base to take out Iran, regardless of what Cheney said 20 years ago when the situation was much different.
Bush was one of the few people who had a real vision beyond just "pacify Iraq." He understood that Iran and Syria had to be dealt with . . . and still do.
The biggest mistake was not doing this in 1991.
Almost right. We should have done Iran in 1979 when they took hostages and I was still in the Army.
You are factually incorrect on that one.
All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011. -- U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, 2008 (signed on November 17, 2008 and effective on January 1, 2009)
I'm surprised there are still some people left here on FreeRepublic who actually believe the bullsh!t they were sold by their own government during the administration of George W. Bush.
We had forces in the Axis powers for a long time. We did so because it was not a secured area.
Japan wasn’t all that secure till the middle 1950’s.
It wasn’t just to keep the Soviet’s out, but to make sure Germany and Japan didn’t decide to go for another round.