By Askia Muhammad
WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - With the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq on March 19, 2003, one of the longest wars in American history was observed in this country by many people trying to not notice it.
With the worldwide economic meltdown dominating the 24-hour news echo-chamber; Iraqi deaths as high as one million according to some analysts; and U.S. military deaths at more than 4,250 and counting, a sense of fatigue over the Iraq war has settled in among the American public.
In a speech to military troops and officers at Camp LeJeune, N.C., President Barack Obama announced that his administration will “proceed cautiously” on the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from the country and that U.S. commanders will bring it about in close consultation with the Iraqi government.
That withdrawal process, involving 100,000 of the 145,000 troops stationed in Iraq will take 18 months, rather than the 16 months promised during the campaign by candidate Obama. All U.S. troops he said would be removed by the end of 2011.

That’s one reason the International ANSWER Coalition organized thousands of protestors to march on the Pentagon, and in San Francisco and Los Angeles March 21.
“The reason tens of thousands of people are marching on March 21 is that the war is not over,” Brian Becker, national co-director of the ANSWER Coalition told The Final Call. “The occupation of Iraq continues. It’s an illegal occupation. It was illegal under Bush and it’s still illegal. There’s 150,000 U.S. troops, 200,000 other mercenaries. And right now, the U.S. is preparing to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan.

“All the troops should be brought home today,” Mr. Becker continued. “I mean, if it’s an illegal occupation, that means it’s illegal to continue any kind of occupation. The president used carefully chosen words when he said he ‘intends to leave by the end of 2011.’ That leaves a big loophole so that (Central Command chief) Gen. (David) Petraeus or (Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman) Adm. (Michael) Mullen or the other figures in the Pentagon establishment can say, ‘well necessity requires the U.S. presence to continue, and perhaps for years.’
“We believe that people have to stay in the streets, not to let down, not to sit on the sidelines and let the military industrial complex pursue the agenda that they want for the new administration. We have to be in the streets to say that the people elected the president because they want the wars to end. Now, they must end,” said Mr. Becker.

Obama plan for withdrawal questioned
Mr. Obama said that between 35,000 and 50,000 troops will initially remain in Iraq to help train Iraqi forces and undertake counter-terrorism missions.
The potential size of that remaining force doesn’t please leaders of Mr. Obama’s own Democratic Party, who had envisioned a fuller withdrawal, although Republicans, including GOP Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) were generally pleased with the strategy. The president personally briefed House and Senate members of both parties about his intentions behind closed doors before he publicly announced his plan.

Mr. Obama’s nuanced language is all the more reason for continued vigilance by the war’s critics. “What he calls for on the immediate is a partial withdrawal, leaving part of the current 145,000 troops behind, leaving the mercenaries behind,” Phyllis Bennis, a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies told The Final Call. But Mr. Obama did not make a “commitment for total withdrawal, no commitment around the bases. But he also referred to this as a strategy to end the war. He said, ‘I intend to have all the troops out by the end of 2011.’
“So, even though we understand that: 1. that’s not soon enough; and 2. an intention is not the same as a commitment, it gives us a very crucial tool to hold up and say: ‘This was your commitment, this is what you promised as recently as March of 2009.’ So when he starts to back away from that, when the generals get the upper hand, if they do, he will have to counter that with the fact that all around the country people believe his commitment was to end the war,” Ms. Bennis continued.
“The key is, we can’t simply give up and say, ‘Well okay. Obama’s going to do it, so we can move on to Afghanistan for instance. We do have to do more work on Afghanistan than we have been. That is going to be the centerpiece. Obama unfortunately seems to believe that to run for president you have to have a war of your own. That’s a terrible scenario, but it is a reality that he has shaped,” Ms. Bennis said.

Israel’s interests and U.S. policy in Iraq
While the U.S. invested trillions of dollars and thousands of lives and tens of thousands more U.S. personnel injured and maimed, this country will not be able to claim a victory, according to one analyst. Israel, said Eugene Bird, a former naval officer, former Foreign Service officer, and now president of the Council for the National Interest, based in Washington.