War is Over

The Iraq War is over for real this time.  I was premature - okay, dead wrong - in suggesting over a year ago that the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq in August 2010 would effectively end the conflict and begin a mollified period similar to the fragile peace that followed the 1953 Korean armistice.  In fact, American troop deaths continued, as did violence in Iraq.  But now, it's over.  It's really over.  A war that began with a huge invasion and a roar of public approval whipped up but Republican hawks ended this week with the sound of muted bass notes played at a slow tempo . . . accompanied by the faint sound of "Taps."  The Iraq War cost the lives of 4474 American service personnel, left 32,226 wounded, and cost countless of Iraqi lives.  And it got us nothing except a stronger Iranian influence in the Middle East.  We went into Iraq under false pretenses - that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and may have had something to do with 9/11 - and the Bush White House had us believing we'd enter as liberators and leave a prosperous, first-world nation behind.  The reality could not have been any more different.

The only good thing about this war, aside from the fact that it's over (for us - violence is likely to continue among Iraqis for awhile), is that Iraq veterans are likely to be treated with the dignity and respect that eluded Vietnam veterans.  They also have a wealth of real-world experience that will come in handy in the outside world and make our civilian instituions stronger.  But their maturity came out of a wasteful exercise that took valuable resources from building up our strength at home.  We will not recover from this for a long time. 

Alas, neither will Iraq.