Hurray! Troops Returning Home – Military to Civilian Job Search – Military to Federal Resume and KSA

President Obama’s announcement that all U.S. troops still deployed in Iraq will come home by the end of 2011 is very welcome news.  Professional Resume and Career Development Center is proud to support our troops in finding job  positions after returning home.

Where once some 160,000 U.S. soldiers were in Iraq, now about 40,000 remain.

Since the Bush administration invaded Iraq in 2003, a million U.S. troops have served there. Over 4,400 died and 32,000 were wounded, many with injuries they will suffer for a lifetime.

So far, the  cost of the war to the U.S. is estimated at $1 trillion – a sum that could have kept thousands of public workers including teachers and health workers on the job, repaired vast amounts of crucial U.S infrastructure, and more. Many of the costs are not yet calculated, including those for the future care of veterans.

Efforts by the Obama administration and some in Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s government to have several thousand U.S. troops remain after Dec. 31 reportedly foundered on U.S. insistence that its troops must come home and be immune from prosecution under Iraqi law.

It is also worth noting that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is the largest embassy in the world. The State Department says some 5,000 security contractors will remain in the country to protect U.S. diplomatic facilities around the country.

As important as the troop withdrawal is what happens to troops after they leave Iraq. Will they go now to Afghanistan? Will they serve in some other location abroad or be able to come home and secure jobs?

Or will they, and the funds needed to deploy and maintain them, come home, where funds and people can be employed instead to build a truly 21st century network of education, health care, child care, affordable homes and human services for all?

We hope withdrawal from Iraq will be a giant step toward full withdrawal of all troops and contractors from Afghanistan  and adoption of a U.S. foreign policy based on cooperation and development aid.
The next step will require a vast movement of all who seek a world of peace, economic, social justice and gainful employment.