Between Iraq and a Hard Place

©2010 by LeeZard


America’s military mission in Iraq is over; that’s what our political leaders tell us. So, is the war over? Who won?

Nobody.

Certainly the U.S. cannot claim victory, not with almost 40,000 of our young soldiers killed or wounded; not with about (GASP!) $900-BILLION tax dollars down the gun barrels and certainly not because the war started with lies from Dubya and his goons. Weapons of mass destruction my ass.


But we all know the war isn’t over. More than 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq. Call them “advisors,” call them “trainers” but whatever you call them, they are still at risk. Why? I’ve Iraq’d my brain and can’t come up with a good reason. Of course, I couldn’t come up with a good reason for the war at the outset.

This is Vietnam in reverse. In that doomed war we started as advisors and ended up defeated combatants. Just flip it for Iraq (LeeZard slaps his head in disgust). No, we didn’t get our ass kicked in Iraq as we did in Vietnam but this war is more meaningless and at least as divisive.

The losers, the real losers in the Iraqi debacle are the American families who’ve been scarred, destroyed and forever changed. Kids without fathers or mothers; parents who will outlive their children and a veteran support system stretched to the max. I can’t even begin to consider the personal, economic and social losses for the Iraqis (at least 100,000 Iraqis killed).

Let’s see, $900-billion – was there a better use for those dollars? Well, the Tea Party (poopers) scream about the $900-billion cost of Obama ‘s health care reform. Ditto the $900-billion economic stimulus package. They haven’t wasted a tea bag on the cost of the war. Talk about screwed up priorities.

Can the average American even imagine $900-billion? According to the Wall Street Journal, if you spent $1-million a day it would take 452 years to piss away $900-billion. Maybe that explains Paris Hilton’s lifestyle but, as usual, LeeZard digresses (I can’t believe I even mentioned Ms. Hilton in my blog – sheeesh). If you started at the signing of the Declaration of Independence and spent $10-million a day you’d still be at it today without hitting $900-billion.

Perhaps the August 31st New York Times editorial put it best:
Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction proved to be Bush administration propaganda. The war has not created a new era of democracy in the Middle East — or in Iraq for that matter. There are stirrings of democratic politics in Iraq that give us hope. But there is no government six months after national elections. In many ways, the war made Americans less safe, creating a new organization of terrorists and diverting the nation’s military resources and political will from Afghanistan. Deprived of its main adversary, a strong Iraq, Iran was left freer to pursue its nuclear program, to direct and finance extremist groups and to meddle in Iraq.

Better luck in Afghanistan.

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