Checking the Calendar

Upon awakening this morning we checked the calendar and discovered that in a few days fully half of the year 2011 will be gone.  Now would be as good a time as any to check in on the War in Iraq.  The Congressional Budget Office reports:

In 2010, the number of U.S. troops (active-duty, reserves, and National Guard personnel) deployed for war-related activities averaged about 215,000, CBO estimates. In the alternative scenario presented here, the number of military personnel deployed for war-related purposes would decline over a five-year period to an average of 180,000 in 2011, 130,000 in 2012, 100,000 in 2013, 65,000 in 2014, and 45,000 in 2015 and thereafter.

Upon accepting his party's nomination for President of the United States, our current Commander-in-Chief proclaimed:

I am absolutely certain that generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that . . . this was the moment when we ended a war.

It would be unfair, of course, to have expected Mr. Obama to end the war on January 20, 2009, and indeed he had not promised any such thing. Instead, his deadline was the end of 2009.

In February of 2008, candidate Obama promised:

I opposed [the Iraq] war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home.

And a month later he doubled-down in the face of criticism:

I was opposed to this war in 2002. . . . I have been against it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8 and I will bring this war to an end in 2009. So don’t be confused.

Just sayin'.