FULL MOON FLIGHTAn AH-64D Apache attack helicopter departs the flight line under a full moon to conduct operations from Camp Taji, Iraq, Dec. 2, 2009. The helicopter is assigned to from the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Air Cavalry Brigade. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Travis Zelinski
Obama's Exit Strategy From Iraq Under Threat Once Again -- The Guardian
Christopher Hill's departure from Iraq after a stint as US ambassador has eerie parallels with that of Paul Bremer, with both leaving the country at a tipping point
For the second time since the fall of Baghdad, America's main man in Iraq has ended a year-long stay by talking up a country on the wrong side of a tipping point. US ambassador Christopher Hill's departure last weekend was a much lower-profile exit than the dash to the airport in 2004 of unpopular post-invasion viceroy Paul Bremer, but it did have eerie parallels.
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My Comment: Because of the impasse between Iraq's different political parties, any sense of forward progress and hope for the future is diminishing with each passing day. If not corrected soon, the prospect of a resumption of sectarian bloodshed will probably be the end result, but with U.S. forces completely undermanned to stop it .... the slaughter and ethnic/religious cleansing .... should it come .... would be greater than what has been happening in Iraq for the past 7 years.
I am one who has always voiced that it would a decade plus before Iraq starts to resemble a functional society with sectarian differences either pacified and/or functioning at a very minimal level. But with U.S. forces withdrawing at an accelerated rate as the departure date quickly approaches .... the time is up for Iraq .... and quite frankly .... also for us.