Well Yeah!

Col. Timothy Reese seems willing to Speak Truth To Power here: Time ‘to Go Home’. How it's escaped the notice of pretty much the entire United States Government and Military for all these years is beyond belief. Finally, someone up and says "Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose..." Actually, I think we started to stink somewhere along about Day Three in Bagdhad. In rebuttal, a spokesman (the proverbial Spokesman, brought forward when the principal can't stand the heat), offered that: "some of the problems the memo referred to had been solved since its writing in early July"! Well; of course. After six years of heavy lifting, the problems we created during that time have been largely solved in the moments between the proverbial 11:59 and Midnight. How Fantastic Is That!
Now, in my opinion, Gen. Odierno is a moron studying to become an idiot. Still, he's obviously learned the Army's Secret Handshake - or - How To Follow Orders, quite well, so he can't be a total washout. Good soldier that he is, he's willing to take the fall and look like even more of an incompetent than he really is. He'll take the incompetence of the entire DOD on his own solid shoulders.
Considering that, dating back at least to the First Crusade, power in that part of the world has been held by leaders who successfully practice the politics of resentment, fear, and anger (pretty much the way some US administrations have been doing lately), how anyone could ever have believed that the Occupying Army of the United States would ever be welcomed to Bagdhad is far beyond credibility. Col. Reese simply says what I and perhaps a million or so others said in 2003. Perhaps he too will be labelled as "naive" for thinking that the Hegemonic Force of the Triumphalist Last-Superpower-On-Earth United States Military isn't capable of subduing every country that dares to demur. I guess some people need reminding.
On the Other Hand, there's Maunder's Lemma (see sidebar on left): Not only do men not remember their past, they don't even remember the present!