"The American Combat Mission in Iraq Has Ended ..."

And if you believe that, I've got a bridge you might be interested in buying. It connects my oceanfront properties in Kansas (also for sale) to the magical island where I keep my leprechaun-sourced gold hoard.

The body of victim is seen on the ground of bomb attacks site in Baghdad September 5, 2010. Up to five suicide bombers, some armed with rifles, tried to storm an army base in Baghdad on Sunday, killing 12 people and wounding 36 less than a week after Washington declared U.S. combat operations in Iraq over. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST)

The body of victim is seen on the ground of bomb attacks site in Baghdad September 5, 2010. Up to five suicide bombers, some armed with rifles, tried to storm an army base in Baghdad on Sunday, killing 12 people and wounding 36 less than a week after Washington declared U.S. combat operations in Iraq over. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST)

From the Washington Post's account of an attack on an Iraqi army base today:

The Americans provided covering fire while Iraqi soldiers pursued the attackers who had entered the compound, said Lt. Col Eric Bloom, a U.S. military spokesman. The U.S. intervention also included helicopters and drones, he said.

50,000 US troops remain in Iraq. Re-labeling them ("advisers") doesn't take them out of harm's way. No magic, bulletproof "we're not combat troops any more" force field pops into existence around them just because POTUS made a speech. They're still there, and the fighting continues.

The American combat mission in Iraq has ended? I need not deplete my own meager rhetorical arsenal for a pithy response -- Confederate cavalry warlord (and, to his eternal discredit, Ku Klux Klan founder) Nathan Bedford Forrest provided that response 140-odd years ago:

Damn such nonsense. War means fightin' and fightin' means killin'. Turn the grindstone.

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Cross-posted to AntiWar.Com