It was a wonderful feeling to see the last troops leave Iraq after all these years. So closes a somewhat strange era of our history.
Thank you troops.
After I watch the film on these last troops, I picks up the paper and read this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...82O_story.html
"... A deepening political crisis that pits the country’s Shiite prime minister against some of his most outspoken Sunni coalition partners is already raising fears that a brewing conflict could plunge the country into a new era of instability.
...
“These religious parties want to take us back to the earliest days of Islam,” he said. “They are going to oppress independent people who don’t want Iraq to be close to Iran.”
Fears of an expansion of Iranian influence are widespread among Sunnis and Shiites. Ali, the wedding musician, said that he fears a future in which his livelihood is wiped out by prohibitions on partying, music and dancing, and that the Americans had helped check Iranian influences on the Iraqi government and moderate the behavior of the politicians.
.....
While similar disputes have erupted in the past, only to be smoothed over by lengthy negotiations, this one seemed in the minds of many ordinary Iraqis to acquire ominous overtones in the wake of the departure of the Americans. There have been more soldiers and armored vehicles on the streets of Baghdad in recent days, they say. Tanks have been deployed outside the homes of Hashimi, Mutlak and a third Sunni politician, their guns pointed toward their gates. A convoy of trucks laden with ammunition queued for access to the fortified Green Zone on Sunday, adding to the jittery mood.
The crisis is dividing Iraq along sectarian lines, threatening a revival of the tensions that erupted in widespread bloodletting in the middle of the past decade. Sunnis detect a plot by Maliki to crush his rivals and cement his authority now that U.S. forces have departed. Shiites think that Hashimi and other Sunni politicians may be behind some of the acts of terrorism that have abated but not disappeared from Baghdad’s streets.
......
.-.-.-.-.-.
Interesting times indeed. May God bless the Iraqis.
Pete