As of 2:00pm on December 15, as the coalition flags are coming down in a ceremony in Baghdad:
Do you know what it was all about? I don’t.
LOOKING FOR LIFE BEYOND CABLE NEWS AND FINDING THAT RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
- Louis BrandeisTension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
- Chinese ProverbRecent Comments
Whatever Works 
Not really. The Iraq War ended years ago. What ended today was the Iraq Peace, which cost America a lot more lives and money than the war did – but Bush wanted to leave a nation behind instead of a shattered mess like every other Power would have done and Obama kept to Bush’s timetable.
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Of course you’re right in that the years since Shock and Awe (hated that) have been more civil war than what the Iraqis call “The American War”. Call it what you will though, it’s over (well, except for the 16000 personell and contractors at the city sized ’embassy’).
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… And the drones, and the SpecOps teams go in and out to do what needs to be done to prop up the Iraqi government, and the US-funded mercenaries units to do the same, and…
I’ll give Obama his props for following Bush’s timeline and not letting the Iraqi government extend it or shorten it, but nothing’s really over except for that parts of rebuilding / stabilizing Iraq that politicians seeking reelection hate.
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In a way, we’re back where we started when we had sanctions and no fly zones and had already invaded once. Sure, Saddam and his vile evil incarnate sons are gone, but so is a lot of infrastructure, electrical service etc., which feeds resentment. But irony is triumphant, as Iran becomes Iraq’s close ally. They seem to have been dating quite a lot recently.
At least we’re not killing and being killed any more. Much. By the way, absent in the coverage of the withdrawal is the amazing execution of the process – moving tens of thousands of troops and an unimaginable volume of equipement and material as quiety and efficiently as they have done. One hell of a job and very well done.
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I am happy that the war in Iraq is finally over. It has been 9 long years for Americans and their families. We have lost so many soliders for a war that we never should have even been a part of. The U.S. has a thing about trying to fix everyone except their own land. Now maybe we can focus on what is really the issue here. That being our hungry, homeless, uneducated americans.
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Hello Lydia, welcome. Tonight the BBC ran a feature story in “News America’ on PBS looking at the explosive growth in numbers of homeless families. Made me ashamed.
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