Ryan Cohen's List: War on Terrorism in Iraq

• WASHINGTON - U.S. troops could leave Iraq later than currently planned if the fragile nation's elections are delayed, the Defense Department said Thursday.
• With a political deadlock in Baghdad over how to register voters in the northern oil-rich Kirkuk province, however, the balloting could be delayed.
• But Sunday's bombings at government ministries in Baghdad, which killed 155 people, underscore the security threats and vulnerability in a nation where some U.S. officials have declared the war is all but over.
• horrific and deplorable" suicide bombing attacks have not "caused anybody to reevaluate or reassess or reconsider the drawdown plan, nor has it prompted the Iraqis, for that matter, to ask for our forces to come back into Baghdad to assist in the aftermath of this attack."

2 more annotations...

• The U.S. military says two American soldiers have died in Iraq — one in combat and one of noncombat-related injuries.
• The deaths raise to at least 4,359 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003. That's according to an Associated Press count.

• In fact, history gives a pretty good sense of what the challenges for the departing Americans are going to be, whether you look at Vietnam in the early 1970s, or the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan in the late 1980s, or the Israeli pullout from Lebanon in several ugly stages from 1982 to 2000. One of the first things that happens is that erstwhile allies of the departing force start to cut deals with—and pass on quantities of intelligence to—the powers that are likely to stay in place. In this case, Iran. If supply lines are long, as they certainly are in Iraq, they become increasingly vulnerable to attack and harassment, as enormous amounts of matériel and the last soldiers traveling with it are pulled out. (The classic horror story from history was the British retreat from Kabul in 1842, when 16,000 people set out for Jalalabad and only one man made it.)

• <div id="thorax"><br/> <div id="metathorax"><br/> <div class="article HorizontalHeader"><br/> <div class="channel"></div><br/> <h1 id="headline">Exit Tragedies</h1><br/> <h2 class="deck" id="deck"><br/> <p>Will the final American pullout from Iraq be a parade, a retreat, or a rout?</p><br/> </h2><br/> <div class="photoBox no-float"><br/> <div class="box box2" evar=""><br/> <div class="top"><br/> <div><br/> <div>&nbsp;</div><br/> </div><br/> </div><br/> <div class="content"><br/> <div class="fwArticle"><br/> <div class=""><br/> <a rel="nofollow" target="_self" href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/200509" class="external-link"><br/> <img alt="" src="http://ndn1.newsweek.com/media/28/SLAH-horizontal.jpg"><br/> </a><br/> </div><br/> <div><br/> <h5><br/> <a rel="nofollow" target="_self" href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/200509" class="external-link">Brothers in Arms</a><br/> </h5><br/> <span class="bylineDate"><br/> </span><br/> <p>Most U.S. soldiers are leaving Iraqi cities this month, but thousands will remain as advisors to Iraqi soldiers and police, separated by much but yoked together in a still-daunting mission.</p><br/> </div><br/> </div><br/> </div><br/> <div class="bot"><br/> <div><br/> <div><br/> &nbsp;<br/> </div><br/> </div><br/> </div><br/> </div><br/> <div class="photoCredit"><br/> </div><br/> </div><br/> <div class="articlecontent"><br/> <div class="articleInfo"><br/> <div class="authorInfo">By <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/182927">Christopher Dickey</a> | Newsweek Web Exclusive</div><br/> <div class="articleDate"><br/> <div class="articleUpdated"><br/> <span>Jul&nbsp;23, 2009</span><br/> </div><br/> </div><br/> <br/> </div><br/> <div id="ToolBox-top" class="ToolBox"><br/> <div class="social-network"><br/> <ul class="large-buttons"><br/> <span>Share:</span><br/> <li class="facebook"><br/> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.newsweek.com/id/208128">Facebook</a><br/> </li><br/> <li class="digg-submit"><br/> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.digg.com/submit?url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/208128?digg=1&amp;title=Exit+Tragedies&amp;bodytext=Will+the+final+American+pullout+from+Iraq+be+a+parade,+a+retreat,+or+a+rout?">Digg</a><br/> <span class="digg-count"><br/> </span><br/> </li><br/> <li class="twitter"><br/> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=RT+%40newsweek+What+Will+the+U.S.+Withdrawal+From+Iraq+Look+Like%3f+http%3a%2f%2fbit.ly%2fA7hRh">Tweet</a><br/> </li><br/> <li class="linkedin"><br/> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.newsweek.com%2fid%2f208128&amp;title=Exit+Tragedies&amp;summary=Will+the+final+American+pullout+from+Iraq+be+a+parade%2c+a+retreat%2c+or+a+rout%3f">LinkedIn</a><br/> </li><br/> <li class="yahoo"><br/> &lt;script src="http://d.yimg.com/ds/badge2.js" type="text/javascript" badgetype="text-votes">newsweek:http://www.newsweek.com/id/208128&lt;/script><span id="yahooBuzzBadge-84041032521257449732425" class="yahooBuzzBadge yahooBuzzBadge-text-votes"><a rel="nofollow" href="http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzz?publisherurn=newsweek&amp;guid=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fid%2F208128&amp;targetUrl=" title="Vote for your favorite stories on Yahoo! 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• the Emperor Augustus sent his legions into Germany in 9 B.C. and lost them."
• orderly U.S. withdrawal does not become a retreat or, in the end, a rout
• American soldiers could no longer patrol on their own and had to ask permission of the Iraqis, and that was just the way things would have to be from now on.
• "The American soldiers are in prisonlike bases," he said, none too delicately, "as if they are under house arrest."
• They are, he said, "the local version of Neighborhood Watch."

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• his story is much like the others: he moved to the United States with his Pashtun family 10 years ago and has been there since, except (as he admitted) for terrorist training he received in a Qaeda facility in Pakistan in 2008.
• But Zazi's arrest is still cause for worry: his upbringing in the United States and his training in Pakistan would have made him an especially dangerous operative. It wouldn't take many like him to bring the Afghan war home.