Andrew Bacevich is right:
Back in Iraq, meanwhile, nothing has been resolved and nothing settled. Round one of the Iraq war produced a great upheaval that round two served only to exacerbate. As the convoys of U.S. armored vehicles trundle south toward Kuwait and then home, they leave the stage set for round three.U.S. soldiers are still involved in round three:
Insurgents mounted a coordinated attack on one of the main military commands in Baghdad on Sunday, briefly drawing fire from American soldiers, an event that underscored the ambiguity of the American military’s role in Iraq.There are still 50,000 U.S. servicemembers in Iraq. It's no longer a combat mission, but it's not over.
The attack punctuated a sharp rise in violence as the United States declared an official end to its combat mission here effective last Wednesday.
A group of at least six armed men, some of them rigged with explosives, attacked a rear gate at the base, the headquarters of Iraq’s 11th Army Division, which houses the command responsible for security in the part of the capital east of the Tigris River and a federal police brigade, as well as American advisers and the soldiers who protect them. None of the Americans were reported hurt.
