by Richard Kane   

US troops are coming home from Iraq, but no there are collective cheers, hardly a whisper on many progressives blogs.

There was a huge celebration as US troops came home from the First and Second World Wars. Unless it involves defeat, almost everywhere this kind of event leads to celebration.

Even in defeat, at the end of World War II, Germans amazed the invading Americans by cheering, It turned out they were in part cheering the US had arrived before the Russians. But partly they were truly cheering that the war was over.

Economic bad news doesn't put one in a cheering mood. But at least there should be giant sigh of relief. Cheering is good for the heart and blood pressure. Americans seem to be drifting into just ignoring war unless a loved one is personally involved. Let's join the close relatives in a collective cheer of welcome home.

I hope others can help me in suggestions or links to celebration.

Take a moment to watch close relatives celebrate in the following video,
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/10/as-iraq-war-ends-families-across-u-s-welcome-troops-home/?hpt=hp_c2


I am in Philadelphia, is anything being noted locally? There was some local comments to this posting,
http://phillyimc.org/en/i-feel-cheated-where-are-cheers

I had expected al Qaeda to attack the withdrawing troops like they messed up Afghan President President Karzai's peace effort with a terror attack. In the past every time Karzai mentioned peace, or some public US leader made a peace effort splash, the drown war increased. For this and other reason's al Qaeda always wanted other Muslim's to share their pain. If the dollar was in the midst of a desperate emergency crisis as the Euro is now in, then al Qaeda and even Taliban renegades could have seized several Americans for ransom as we left.

Planning attacks takes time. I wouldn't been surprised if al Qaeda had something gross planned for the last week in December that might not now fit in that President Obama announced that the war was over
two weeks early.

As we tend to know, there is never the less a dark cloud under the silver lining. Al Qaeda dreams of a totally bankrupt West, and US funded private contractors still in Iraq are expensive. It is possible that bin Laden refrained from a second large Western attack because it would lead to a draft which would be cheaper than a volunteer army would be. Al Qaeda can't stand it that some Muslims are enticed by Western ways. Particularly they like to attack Muslims watching soccer on a giant TV screen. By giving into al Qaeda and giving up our civil liberties that some Muslims want and mistreating Muslims in the US into not longing to stay here, it satisfies al Qaeda enough to look for other targets instead. Which are many indeed, the US media is too myopic to notice or barely report on at all. Off the subject I think there is good news when it comes to the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street.

All my editorializing and the editorializing of others is getting in the way of cheering. Others seem to be emptily cheering in never-land. We somehow need to do both. The soldiers who were in Iraq need and deserve a collective “welcome home” by more than just personal friends.
I had difficulty writing something cheering the soldiers coming home yet not hiding from the grim realities surrounding US domestic and foreign policy. Perhaps I have inspired others to do a better job.


RichardKane