It seems perversely appropriate that we’d be able to watch the very last U.S. military convoy exit Iraq today, as seen above, courtesy of a U.S. Air Force Predator drone hovering overhead. The video documents what is purported to be the last truck crossing the border into Kuwait as the robotic camera zooms in on the gates at the border crossing as guards close them, bringing the undeclared war to a quiet and ignominious close…of sorts…
It required the service of more than 1 million U.S. troops, the deaths of some 4,474 of them (the last of whom was 23 year-old Army Spec. David E. Hickman, killed last month), debilitating and often permanent physical injuries to more than 33,000 of them, the mental scars to God-only-knows how many hundreds of thousands of them, the deaths of a minimum of 104,000, though as much as over 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians, all at a cost of nearly $1 trillion at a minimum, though as much as $3 trillion.
But the evil dictator, whose evil dictating the U.S. had helped support and finance and facilitate for much of his reign, was permanently removed from power. So there’s that.
Today, after nearly a full decade in support of that absurd purported mission, the last of all but 150 U.S. troops have finally left Iraq, with the rest — and several thousand “private” contractors — left behind to guard our embassy and other remaining “U.S. assets”.
Yes, it’s true that candidate Obama had promised to end the Iraq War, even as President Obama fought to keep it going against the preference of the Iraqis, and even as, with that battle lost, he’s now more than happy to take credit for it finally being “over” nonetheless.
As Marcy Wheeler notes, it’s not really over, as evidenced by the U.S. Senate’s recent rejection of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) motion to officially declare as much by Congressional fiat. The undeclared and second-longest “war” in U.S. history will rage on in the hearts of those who’d never had the courage to officially declare it in the first place.
But home the troops are coming, as scheduled, in time for Christmas. And for those men and women and their families, this particular leg of this particular self-inflicted long national nightmare — one of an ongoing too-many — is finally coming to a long overdue end.
And for now, at least if the calls to make the same-but-even-worse mistake all over again by attacking Iran — as echoed by virtually all of the GOP Presidential candidates (save for Ron Paul) at last Thursday’s debate — is any indication, we will not have learned a single lesson from any of it.
“we will not have learned a single lesson from any of it”
The “we” is where the rubber meets the road.
The oil barons learned enough from “the Iraq” to now go to “the Iran” for some more oil.
The oil companies now inform us that Iraq will surpass Saudi Arabia in oil production soon enough.
I am so moved, I will share this on-topic poem:
Thus the mid-east Islamic curse spoken by a Suni to a Shia: “may America bring you democracy” …
Iraq’s oil production will not come close to even being 1/2 of Saudi’s anytime soon as OPEC just capped its production for 2012 at 30MBPD, and for the first time Iraq is included in OPEC’s production quota since the US’s escalation of its genocide project through its illegal invasion and sowing Iraq with poisonous depleted uranium. And of course, troops and drones still remain, so the occupation still continues. As Greenwald notes, Panetta does an Albright saying the genocidal death and destruction was “worth it.” Imagine any of the Germans at Nuremberg saying mass killings of Jews and others were “worth it.”
Until they were sitting in the dock at Nuremberg, the Germans were also saying it was “worth it.”
Mass murderers only change their tune when they are cornered.
The military has left the country. We still have the largest Embassy in the world there with 10,000 personel plus 6,000 private army to protect them. That is for our corporation to fleece the Iraq people. I would really like to know how much taxes those corporations are paying. Not much, I would wager. Was it worth the thousands of lives lost and thousands wounded _ Hell No. I hope the neo cons meet their maker soon and answer for their actions.