MSNBC has been covering this all night. Two weeks ahead of schedule, the final combat troops in Iraq are crossing the border into Kuwait.
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Of course 50,000 troops will remain indefinitely in a non-combat capacity. Despite that number, this is still a huge accomplishment for President Obama and our troops. Congratulations.
Now that Israel is going into Lebanon and the fighting intensifies, will the U.S. be able to provide military assistance should it be needed? Well let's look at the other places our military is tied up in and see. First to Afghanistan:
The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan today described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.
The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato's international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that western forces there were short of equipment and were "running out of time" if they were going to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.
The assumption within Nato countries had been that the environment in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban in 2002 would be benign, Gen Richards said. "That is clearly not the case," he said today. He referred to disputes between tribes crossing the border with Pakistan, and divisions between religious and secular factions cynically manipulated by "anarcho-warlords".
So we are running short on supplies and man power in Afghanistan. Interesting, considering we are currently speeding up shipments of supplies to Israel:
The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.
