Hello
Clapping to follow.
BTW, the bible of Gallup tells me that on August 15-17, president Obama stood at 41/52. Today he's at 47/45.
Barack Obama, NYT, July 2008:
As I’ve said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 — two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces.
*
March 2009, Camp LeJeune, North Carolina:
*
*
August 31, 2010, Fort Bliss, Texas:
*
*
*
The first thing that pops in my mind is to say, 'Thank you.'
President Obama visits Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday to mark the formal end of combat operations in Iraq, after seven years and 165 days of fighting. The president will meet with some of the 25,000 troops of the U.S. Army 1st Armored Division — the famed "Old Ironsides" — about half of whom wear combat patches from Iraq.
The troops at Fort Bliss also have something to say: When asked what they would like to share with Obama, their answers ranged from gratitude to be home, to eagerness to be back in the action.
If he had a few words with the commander in chief, what would Maj. Elliott Rogers say?
"I guess the first thing that pops in my mind is to say, 'Thank you.' "
Rogers is grateful that he will not lose any more soldiers — 51 from Fort Bliss have died in Iraq...
// more
*
LA Times front page yesterday:
*
*
*
*
Oh yea, huge promise kept.
*
*
*
*
And here's what the president has done (AP):
**
*
*
*
US soldiers wait to be flown into Kuwait from the Balad military base, north of Baghdad, on August 27, a week before the US military is due to end its combat mission in the country.
*
*
Spc. William Engel II is reunited with his daughter Desiree, 2, in the early hours of Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010. Engel returned from a one-year tour of duty to Iraq.
And because he hasn't purchased furniture yet, Spc. Engel II sits in a child's chair as he watches Desiree sleep on the floor of his nearly empty new apartment in Olympia, Wash.
*
Spc. Stephen Mattaliano, 20, skateboards with his mother, Jessica Mattaliano, Wednesday, Aug. 25th, in Lakewood, Wash. Stephen Mattaliano returned in the early morning hours Wednesday from a one-year tour of duty in Iraq.
*
1st Lt. Brandon Scott hugs his girlfriend, Army 1st Lt. Caitlin Moore, right, after they were reunited Wednesday, Aug. 25.
*
A soldier with the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team walks away with his family, following a homecoming in the early hours of Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 at Joint Base Lewis- McChord in Washington state.
*
*
Staff Sgt. Nathaniel Sonier stands with his son Jackson, 4, after arriving home from Iraq on August 23, to Fort Carson, Colorado.
*
Randy Lebo is reunited with his daughter, Hanna, 1, Aug. 25, 2010.
*
Jackson Sonier, 4, waits for his father, August 23, Fort Carson, Colorado.
*
Spc. Tim McCulloch embraces his girlfriend Deanna Meder, August 23, Fort Carson, Colorado.
*
*
Spc. Michael Rose walks with his three and a half year-old daughter, Arabella, as she carries his uniform cap after they were reunited in the early hours of Wednesday, Aug. 25.
*
*
*
*
*
*
President Obama with troops returning from Iraq at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
*
(Official WH photo by Pete Souza)
*
*
*
*
*