The war is ending in Iraq. That isn’t so hard to believe although I honestly felt like the ending wouldn’t have been this soon. It ends just as I figured it would end though. That is when our government said it was over. I suppose that is one way to end a war.
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the others of their ilk did tremendous damage to our country and to Iraq by our going to war there. Almost 4,500 American troops died from the war. Much more physical damage happened in Iraq itself, of course. At least 60,000 perhaps 100,000 or more Iraqi civilian deaths occured. Some were our enemies, others not so much.
Bush damaged the United States with this war. The torture tactics. Spying on our own citizens. Suspending habeas corpus. This hurt our belief in freedom and liberty. It has hurt our stature around the world as well. The bright shining light, America, now somewhat dimmed.
As for Obama’s role in taking up where Bush left off, I am unsure he could have done differently. Some already call him a hypocrite for embracing a war that he opposed as a senator. But how is it that much different for the man to become commander-in-chief and having to support his troops and thus the ongoing cause, than for a man to become a soldier and thus being required to support his commander-in-chief? Then there are the super hawks who think we should probably stay indefinitely.
I really doubt our involvement in Iraq has ended though. I fear we will continue to lose precious American lives there and elsewhere because of duplicity of the Bush administration and for the Bushies pushing us into an inescapable corner. But for now, we can say the war is nearly done, for this round–the Son of Gulf War.
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