OK, so let’s start this entry with a scenario.

The fire department is dispatched to a horrible fire.  Hours later, their hard work and sacrifice pay off and the fire is almost contained…almost!

“How does it look?” Asks one of the concerned building owners.

“Well,” the Chief responds. “It’s almost contained.”

“Good,” replies another of the owners.  “We’ll take it from here, you may leave now.”

“But, sir,” The Chief looks at the owners, partially confused. “We’ll need a bit more time to fully ensure the fire won’t rekindle.”

“Nope.” Retorts the first owner stubbornly.  “We got it.  Thank you, gentlemen.”

Begrudgingly, the Chief gives in to their demands and orders his firemen to pack up and head home. He jumps back into his truck and stares at the building, knowing it won’t be the last time he’ll see this address.

Several hours later, the alert comes in. As they race to the address, the Chief and his firemen know exactly what they’re getting into.  The glowing embers of the last fire rekindled and turned the building back into a fiery inferno; an inferno that could have been prevented had the Chief and his men been allowed to secure the building and ensured there was no residue for the fire to restart itself.  As it turns out, now they have to fight a new fire that will most likely take as many hours, hard work, and sacrifice as that of the original blaze.

Now, let’s set this scenario to a much larger scale, a global scale. The threatening blaze: Iraq.  The firemen…our US Forces…

In case you’re not up to date on world news, several hours ago, on 3 January 2014, at roughly 2000 UTC/Greenwich time, the Washington Post reported that, “A rejuvenated al-Qaeda force asserted control over the western Iraqi town of Fallujah on Friday, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state in one of the most crucial areas that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago.” ~Link to Article

Elsewhere, in the provincial capital Ramadi, local tribes, in conjuction with Iraqi Police have been successful in ejecting Al-Qaeda loyalists, which is a plus for their area.

Now, I’m in no way, shape, or form an intel analyst of any kind. But, it doesn’t take much imagination to read between the lines and get the slightest feeling that US Forces will most likely re-enter the Iraqi conflict, most likely very, very soon. I’d go as far as saying by the end of this year.

Now, here’s the kicker.  Last time we were there, it seemed like there was, for the most part, only two sides: those for and those against Al-Qaeda.

In this new scene, however, it seems that the relationship—to put it in Facebook terms, is complicated…

According to the same Washington Post article, “local tribes, the Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda militants have been fighting one another for days in a confusingly chaotic three- way war,” and in Ramadi “it was unclear whether all of the tribal fighters battling the al-Qaeda militants were doing so in alliance with the Iraqi government.”

With that three-way struggle going on, it will definitely bring about a more than slightly awkward and perhaps confusing version of our Rules of Engagement.

So, is the enemy of our enemy of our friend our enemy? Or something like that…

Now, just to set the record straight. I’m not saying that our exit from Iraq was as simple as my firemen metaphor. Some will point out political agreements, promises, “we didn’t know that this would happen”…blah, blah, blah. But in the end, to most of those who served in the U.S. Forces and those who sacrificed so much throughout the conflict, that’s exactly what it will feel like. They went in, they had to leave with embers still glowing…they may have to go back in to a brand new fire.

Well, definitely not the way I expected the New Year to start, but definitely sets the pace for a rather interesting and chaotic 2014.