As this occupation of Iraq was never actually declared a war – President Obama’s statement is reflecting the fact that the United States’ “Authorization to use military force” in Iraq has expired, and the US is now simply strategically occupying it with its massive “embassy” in central Baghdad (the world’s largest), and its ghost town remote bases.  Of the over 500 camps the US military has created, built, or occupied in Iraq, only four remain, or less than 1 percent (0.79%).

Obama took office with 150,00 troops in country and as many (or perhaps more) contractors, now his administration claims less than 10,000 troops remain.  ”After near 9 years, our ‘war’ in Iraq ends this month.  Today I’m proud to welcome, Prime Minister Maliki, the elected leader of a sovereign, self-reliant, and democratic Iraq.”

Smoke and mirrors

Much of this rests on semantics, and just what one counts as a “troop” – foreign invaders, occupiers, trainers, or contractors may all be not counted as a “troop”, yet to someone living in Iraq, their country remains invaded and occupied.  The US will attempt to say that only a few thousand “troops” remain in Iraq, yet the “embassy” in central Baghdad has a staff of over 16,000 – as Bill O’Reilly says, “Ya can’t explain that!”  It is not easy to locate a current count of “contractors” in Iraq – there are reports from 2009 which state there were over 100,000 contractors in country, in 2007 contractors were said to outnumber troops.  Of course the word “contractor” was not even mentioned in Obama’s speech today, and both the unspoken privatized war and occupation in Iraq, and the sectarian civil war continue.  Clever linguistic gymnastics are played by the government with their chosen words, when they are calling military trainers “embassy staff” to get around calling them “troops” – more smoke and mirrors.