Just why are our troops still in Iraq?

Galen Kauffman, Las Vegas

Monday, June 20, 2011 | 2:04 a.m.

Regarding an Associated Press article from this month, I’ve highlighted some portions:

“Leon Panetta, President Barack Obama’s choice to head the Pentagon, predicted on Thursday that Iraq will ask the United States to keep some American forces in that country beyond year’s end, the current departure date ...

“After the latest violence in Iraq, Panetta said he expected Baghdad to ask for U.S. troops to stay beyond their scheduled Dec. 31 departure. There are currently about 47,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, none in a declared combat role.

“ ‘I think it’s clear to me that Iraq is considering the possibility of making a request for some kind of presence to remain there,’ he said, adding that it was contingent on what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki requests.”

I thought we were the ones who should be deciding what we should be doing with our U.S. troops.

Eight years after the American invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, the United States has lost more than 4,400 lives in Iraq, with more than 32,000 wounded. That war has cost us billions of dollars.

It is time to shut down George W. Bush’s folly.