Strike The Root Blog

…the situation will be even worse! You think it’s bad now, oh boy, if “we” leave, the whole place will go up in smoke as one giant bonfire of death and destruction! Dogs and cats, living together…Total chaos!!!

How many times have we heard this arrogant and obnoxiously presumptuous claim of the supposed need for the U.S. and British to maintain a heavy military presence in Iraq in order to keep the vicious savages from cutting each other’s throats, or to defend the helpless peasants from allegedly Iranian-supplied terrorists and al-Qaeda?

Well, the Brits have vacated Basra. If pro-war social analysis is correct, Basra should have spiraled downward into a bottomless abyss of death and mayhem, an even worse state of affairs than while the soldiers were there. Surprise, surprise—quite the opposite appears to be happening:

“Residents of Iraq’s southern city of Basra have begun strolling riverfront streets again after four years of fear, their city much quieter since British troops withdrew from the grand Saddam Hussein-era Basra Palace.

“Political assassinations and sectarian violence continue, some city officials say, but on a much smaller scale than at any time since British troops moved into the city after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.”

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