"Our military is doing everything it can to equip Iraq's forces so our troops can come home as soon as possible, but we cannot leave until the job is done"
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The sentence tries to do two contradictory jobs at once: promise an exit while justifying an open-ended stay. Its first half is calibrated to soothe a war-weary public - “doing everything it can,” “so our troops can come home as soon as possible” - the language of urgency and care. Then the hinge: “but we cannot leave until the job is done.” That “but” is where timelines dissolve into mission language, and “as soon as possible” quietly becomes “whenever we decide it’s complete.”
The specific intent is political risk management. Rogers offers the emotional deliverable (troops coming home) while preserving maximum strategic flexibility. The subtext is that “Iraq’s forces” are a proxy measuring stick: if they’re not ready, the U.S. is forced to remain, and responsibility shifts from American decision-making to Iraqi preparedness. It’s a framing that makes prolonged deployment sound less like choice and more like reluctant duty.
Context matters: this kind of rhetoric belongs to the post-2003 arc where “train and equip” became the moral alibi for staying. “The job” is left intentionally vague - stability, counterinsurgency, democracy-building, preventing civil war - because specificity creates deadlines, and deadlines create accountability. The line’s power is its ambiguity: it turns a complex, contested occupation into a simple worksite metaphor, implying a clean finish that history rarely provides.
The specific intent is political risk management. Rogers offers the emotional deliverable (troops coming home) while preserving maximum strategic flexibility. The subtext is that “Iraq’s forces” are a proxy measuring stick: if they’re not ready, the U.S. is forced to remain, and responsibility shifts from American decision-making to Iraqi preparedness. It’s a framing that makes prolonged deployment sound less like choice and more like reluctant duty.
Context matters: this kind of rhetoric belongs to the post-2003 arc where “train and equip” became the moral alibi for staying. “The job” is left intentionally vague - stability, counterinsurgency, democracy-building, preventing civil war - because specificity creates deadlines, and deadlines create accountability. The line’s power is its ambiguity: it turns a complex, contested occupation into a simple worksite metaphor, implying a clean finish that history rarely provides.
Quote Details
| Topic | Military & Soldier |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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