Elated, last US troops leave Iraq, ending war

Elated, last US troops leave Iraq, ending war

KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait (AP) - The last U.S. soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border into neighboring Kuwait at daybreak Sunday, whooping, fist bumping and hugging each other in a burst of joy and relief. Their convoy’s exit marked the end of a bitterly divisive war that raged for nearly nine years and left Iraq shattered and struggling to recover.

The war cost nearly 4,500 American and well more than 100,000 Iraqi lives and $800 billion from the U.S. Treasury. The question of whether it was worth it all - or whether the new government the Americans leave behind will remain a steadfast U.S. ally - is yet unanswered.

The 5-hour drive by the last convoy of MRAPS, heavily armored personnel carriers, took place under cover of darkness and under strict secrecy to prevent any final attacks on the withdrawing troops. The 500 soldiers didn’t even tell their Iraqi partners they were leaving before they slipped out of the last American base and started down the barren desert highway to the Kuwaiti border before dawn Sunday.

The atmosphere was subdued inside one of the vehicles as it streamed down the highway, with little visible in the blackness outside through the MRAP’s small windows. Along the road, a small group of Iraqi soldiers waved to the departing American troops.

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Elated, last US troops leave Iraq, ending war

Make NO mistake about it, I am thrilled that American troops are OUT of Iraq. I am even more than thrilled to know that, at least for now, there will be no more American lives lost in Iraq.

As happy as I am about this, I am disappointed in this story and the way it was written, all because of ONE LINE.

The 500 soldiers didn’t even tell their Iraqi partners they were leaving before they slipped out of the last American base and started down the barren desert highway to the Kuwaiti border before dawn Sunday.

Slipped out? Like a thief in the night? Like a BANDIT? Like cowards? Is that the inference being made by the Associated Press?

Our service men and women gave everything they had, they gave their ALL in some 4,500 cases, they served with HONOR and did the job that their nation ordered them to do. To say that they *SLIPPED OUT* is the most disgusting and denigrating statement that can be made. A statement like that equates to being run out of Iraq.

How DARE the Associated Press make such a statement? Imagine my surprise at this;

NC soldier, 23, was last US troop killed in Iraq

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - As the last U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq on Sunday, friends and family of the first and last American fighters killed in combat were cherishing their memories rather than dwelling on whether the war and their sacrifice was worth it.

Nearly 4,500 American fighters died before the last U.S. troops crossed the border into Kuwait. David Hickman, 23, of Greensboro was the last of those war casualties, killed in November by the kind of improvised bomb that was a signature weapon of this war.

“David Emanuel Hickman. Doesn’t that name just bring out a smile to your face?” said Logan Trainum, one of Hickman’s closest friends, at the funeral where the soldier was laid to rest after a ceremony in a Greensboro church packed with friends and family.

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NC soldier, 23, was last US troop killed in Iraq

The American media needs to remember exactly WHO it is that allows them to enjoy the Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech they so often abuse; the American Soldiers that lay their lives on the line for ALL of us, that’s WHO!

“It is the soldier, not the poet, who gives us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who gives us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the preacher, who gives us freedom of religion.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us freedom to protest.

It is the soldier who serves beneath the flag, who salutes the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives the demonstrator the right to burn the flag.”

God Bless them and protect them one and all!
Honor, Dignity, Service, Dedication. Those are not just words to an American Soldier, they are a way of life!