It’s Time to Bring Our Troops Home

I was listening the CNN TV coverage of Republicans rehashing their same old talking points when I read this:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) – U.S. forces released a revered 70-year-old Sunni cleric on Saturday hours after detaining him, Iraqi officials said. rowds earlier gathered to denounce the early morning raid on the Tikrit home of Sheikh Jamal Abdul Karim al-Dabban, which was described as “outrageous” by a key political party. .S. forces told Iraqi authorities that bad intelligence led to the raid and detention of al-Dabban and two of his sons, officials from Salaheddin province said.

The officials told CNN that the U.S. military apologized to al-Dabban and to the provincial governor and the head of the provincial council. arlier the largest and most powerful Sunni Arab political party issued a statement attacking the raid in Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Baghdad. The foolishness of U.S. troops has reached its limit,” the Iraqi Islamic Party said. These outrageous violations are only going to worsen the security situation in the country.”

Hundreds of people responded to calls over mosque loudspeakers to gather in front of the governor’s office to protest the detention, said local official Sheikh Yahya Ibrahim al-Atwani, The Associated Press reported. fficials later told CNN that a banquet would be held at the Tikrit Grand Mosque on Saturday evening to celebrate the sheikh’s release. Te deputy governor of Salaheddin province, Abdullah Hussein Ajbara, said earlier that the Salaheddin provincial council and other government institutions suspended work to protest the detention. He is against terrorism and sectarianism,” Ajbara said of al-Dabban, whom he described as a very revered, moderate senior leader of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim community. “There was no reason for U.S. forces to detain him.”

Our soldiers have been put in an impossible position. It’s is time to bring them home or at least redeploy them as John Murtha suggests.