Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger

Now that Iraq is replacing Afghanistan as the “forgotten war” it must be hard for the generals who are left behind. After all, the Iraqi government has told them:

to "stop all joint patrols" in Baghdad. It said U.S. resupply convoys could travel only at night and ordered the Americans to "notify us immediately of any violations of the agreement."

It’s not as if the US occupation doesn’t still control lots of Iraqi territory. As Dahr Jamail points out, “while military commanders claim to have handed over 142 military outposts around Iraq to the Iraqis, US troops will continue to occupy 320 other outposts around Iraq” and continues to build new ones.

“Sometimes there are already bases established, and we just need to either increase the actual footprint — the size of the base — or increase the living area,” said Col. David Dancer, the operations chief for the 225th Engineering Brigade, which has handled most of the building up and tearing down of bases in and around Baghdad.

“But there are examples of where we are building patrol bases from scratch,” Dancer said.

The U.S. military would not say how many new bases were being constructed, but they are believed to be on the outskirts of Baghdad and other big cities.

Even so, at least one general is not very happy:

… Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, commander of the Baghdad division, wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Washington Post.

"Maybe something was ‘lost in translation,’ " Bolger wrote. "We are not going to hide our support role in the city. I’m sorry the Iraqi politicians lied/dissembled/spun, but we are not invisible nor should we be." He said U.S. troops intend to engage in combat operations in urban areas to avert or respond to threats, with or without help from the Iraqis.

"This is a broad right and it demands that we patrol, raid and secure routes as necessary to keep our forces safe," he wrote. "We’ll do that, preferably partnered."

Bolger then complained:

"Our [Iraqi] partners burn our fuel, drive roads cleared by our Engineers, live in bases built with our money, operate vehicles fixed with our parts, eat food paid for by our contracts, watch our [surveillance] video feeds, serve citizens with our [funds], and benefit from our air cover," Bolger noted in the e-mail.

Being an occupying army is a thankless task General Bolger, a thankless task.

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