Are you/we surprised? U.S. Soldiers, Back in Iraq, Find Security Forces in Disrepair....

Damn Sir, looking at that "stay back 100 Meters" sign took straight back to Iraq! Many days spent in Iraq and most were not good COL Charles Williams!

Not really.

We left years too early for Iraq to handle its own security. I remember when Obama announced that all combat troops had left Iraq and the war was over. My convoy got hit by a 105 round used as an IED that night about a quarter mile from a IP station... That’s when I knew 100% we were really f*&king up by leaving.

We do not have any business with boots on ground there, congress has not declared war!

You know if you have been to Cross Sabres in Baghdad you are definitely part of a good chapter in US Army History.

First of all, I like that picture, I was at the Cross Sabres in 03. I believe that if we would have left 3 BCTs in Iraq that we could have stopped Isis dead in their tracks. General Norman Schwarzkopf wisely wrote about the tactical and logistical advantages of "pre staging" and maintaining a substantial footprint. There is no excuse for not achieving a satisfactory SOFA Agreement with the leadership of Iraq considering the tremendous nogatiating leverage we have in the way of hundreds of millions of US tax payer dollars and military equipment supplied to the Ireqi government. Iraq turned into a complete political failure.

We have a page for those of us who fought together in Ramadi. This was posted and my heart sank. We are all ready to jump back in the fight, however a good friend and one of the few leaders I looked up to posted this:

Fuck the people over there. All that matters is that with our blood we fought for the lives of our own while they stood on that ground. With the efforts of those before us, then the Currahees and Marines, to the 1-9 Manchus who fought the good fight in Ramadi, there was Victory. The Victory had everything to do with the transformation of Ramadi that ultimately led to a few years of Troops not being wounded or killed in Ramadi. That is a noble cause, and well worth it in my mind. Any 100 of us would fight to the death for the sake of one single American life. And we would not feel sorry for ourselves doing so. We are still fighting in Ramadi in our minds and hearts, and are still losing men to that fucking place. We have plenty of fight in front of us right here, keeping our Brothers alive and saving them from themselves. We don't need to return to Iraq to be fighting in Ramadi...

For some of us the physical fight is over. He reminded me that what we did meant something regardless of what's happening now but if given the chance ... yes I would go back.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/15/middleeast/iraq-isis/index.html

I called it in 07. 3-5 years after we leave, we'll be back

I trained police officers in Iraq. They did not have a chance. Corruption was immediate from the head down. It was encouraged at all levels and we could do nothing to stop it. Why? Because we gave the country back so we were not seen as occupiers. I wonder what shape Germany and Japan would have been in if we turned the country over in less than a year without establishing a working economy?

We turned over the country too soon. We did nothing to establish an infrastructure so that people had jobs. Because of this they have supported any kind of change that will over throw the current mess that is the government.

Then there is the 3 distinct religions. I personally am surprised that Iraq has not split into 3 separate countries. Mark my words, it will happen soon enough.

Kinda figured we would be back sooner or later