The War In Iraq Is Over

[filkertom]

As Steve Benen says, there are a fair number of caveats. And a whole lot of regrets.

Many, many people have died or been maimed or been displaced because of this stupid, tragic mistake that the neocons shoved down the world's throat (and I won't be satisfied until Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Wolfowitz, Kristol, etc., etc., etc., are in chains before the Hague). The country of Iraq is still broken, its people still scattered, its cities still dangerous, its prospects still uncertain.

But.

We have finally, officially removed our military presence from Iraq. It isn't everything it could have been, certainly not every thing it should have been, but it's something.

Here's a salute to all the men and women of our Armed Forces who made this possible, with special thanks for all the various state National Guard troops who got sucked into this fiasco. Here's hoping that the jingoistic faux patriotism of the Right Wing gets run over by people who actually give a shit about our troops, and all of you get the education, training, health care, and other benefits you were promised when you signed on.

For now, at least, this conflict is over.

May we end all of them soon.

Comments

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

To paraphrase Kipling:

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because George W. lied.

And funny how anyone who *questioned* the President during this build-up to his evil, ugly, phony war was a traitor and a terrorist-lover and a French-sympathizer. But now anyone who *supports* the (black) President is a traitor, a terrorist-lover, a commie-sympathizer...

[alverant.livejournal.com]

IOKIYAR

[roman-mclaze.livejournal.com]

Gardnerhill, this may be the first time I have been able to agree with you about something without caveat. Love the pseudokip too!

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad our troops are coming home. The war in Iraq was a huge mistake and it made taking out Osama bin Laden even longer than it should have.

Even now the right wing punditry is foaming at the mouth over our troops leaving Iraq. They moan and complain and wring their hands over our troops leaving, and blame it all on President Obama. It seems as though they either forget, or deliberately omit the fact that the exit date was negotiated by President Bush.

Now if only we can wrap things up in Afganistan I'll be really happy.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

It was a colossal mistake that cost thousands of American lives and possibly hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. We'll never know; our government didn't care enough to keep track.

I'm glad it is as "over" as it is, and that we got as many of our service members back as we did. And I hope one day Iraqi women will have at least as much rights as they had under Saddam Hussein (and hopefully more, but that would be a start.)

And best of luck to those Iraqis working to build a country with *human* rights.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, right-wingers and neo-cons only wring their hands over women's rights when it serves their political agenda.

They didn't give a crap about the Taliban treatment of women (while American women talked about it for a decade) until 9/11 gave them the excuse to charge in with their guns, yelling. 'Cause they finally did something bad to rich white American males.

They didn't give a rat's ass about sexual harrassment (Anita Hill = A Lying Bitch (http://filkertom.livejournal.com/1252734.html?thread=25214078#t25214078)) until Paula accused Clinton.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Of course they're bringing the troops home, once this new Security Bill gets signed into law, the new frontline will be your own back yard!

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Background music: The War Is Over by Phil Ochs.

[poltr1]

I agree. We never should have gone there. And I too would love to see them tried for ware crimes. But will it ever happen? Not bloody likely.

And Iran? Only if Rove personally funds the effort.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Now if we can just untangle ourselves from the other conflicts...and stop treating our citizens as criminals...and fix our economy...and our health care...

It's a good first step and it'll _hopefully_ put more money in the gooberment coffers to ease the pain of our stupidity spending but honestly we have a long long way to go still.

For now though I'll take it as an early Yule gift and be thankful for those that have made it home from this conflict alive.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Amen.

Our troops have faced a very messed up situation, often with a great deal of humanity, courage, and kindness. But the situation tended to grind that out of them.

Hopefully we can rally around those who get to return home and remind them that life can be joyful, also.

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

Amen.