Turning the Page?

I am responding to the Aug. 31 C-SPAN video announcement by President Barrack Obama. Here Obama makes a statement announcing the withdraw of US troops in Iraq. The US is officially handing over the ropes to Iraqi forces to maintain their own security and democracy. The removal of the forces does not mean the US is packing up and leaving Iraq to swim alone. No no, we shall remain as a life jacket giving them support, democratically and military, when needed. The President has set a complete turnover date for next year with promises of a long term relationship/partnership.

Obama addresses the fact that the US has paid a huge price in this drawn out "open ended" war. We have not only paid trillions at the expense of the tax payers but also with the blood of our young soldiers. This was has come at during a time of great economic downfall in our own country and Obama announces that the resources spent of the Iraq was can now be focused at fixing problems within our own country. I very much agree with this statement and think that the US needs to focus more on protecting its own boarders.

I can't help but wonder about the timing of the withdraw of the troops. It is about voting time and democrats are losing support. Is Obama trying to ramp up support for the left? Also, congress has promised thousands of troops to the 4 southern states... This brings me to another question.. With are own boarders becoming increasingly unsafe, are our troops coming home or just being relocated to fight a war in our own back yard? Just a few side thoughts...

With the withdraw Obama says we are "Turning the Page"... We a turning the page but the next page has WAR written all over it. If our troops don't come home some are sure to be sent to Afghanistan. Yes, another country we have to clean up. I believe its only right and that we are headed in the right direction but I wonder if it is really possible to withdraw so quick and these 2 economies still remain stable....after all we did destroy a lot of their infrastructure just a few years ago. Whatever the case this is a good first step to helping out our own economy and refocusing important issues. I hope one day we will be able to "turn the page" to a day when all troops come home and war is over, not just moved BACK to the country next door.