No

by Brian Tobin

Created on: August 10, 2010   Last Updated: September 20, 2010

Over?  Is it over because a U.S. president wishes it were over so that he can say that he fulfilled a campaign promise?  Over?  Is it over when official troop strength marginally drops just below 50,000?  In truth the war in Iraq will not be over until the last American military personnel have completely withdrawn from Iraq.  This will not happen anytime soon because Iran would then become the de facto ruler of the country, a circumstance which may anyway happen sooner than later.  This president has engaged in the same kind of delusional thinking that got the country into this stupid war.

Over?  "U.S. Iraqi forces raid stronghold (9/16/10)."  Over?  "Joint Operation with U.S. troops leaves six dead in clash near Fallujah (9/16/10)."  Recent estimates have, moreover, suggested that the U.S. has spent some 50 billion dollars in completely "unaccounted for" funds since the war began.  The middle class has fled Iraq.  Basic infrastructure such as sewer. water, and electricity are disfunctional.  And yet official lies continue to try to defend the greatest blunder in U.S, foreign policy history.  And the U.S. is repeating the same mistakes now in Afghanistan.

It would be delusional thinking to believe that the war in Iraq was remotely worth fighting.  Unfortunately, such is the tenor of the times that many Americans have been programmed to believe that the war was a noble cause because Americans only fight for noble causes and that all Americans in uniform are heroes because only heroes fight in noble causes.  This unrelenting propaganda campaign has helped to wreck our economy and wreck the finest traditions of our American military.  Not only have we played right into the hands of forces that would wish us ill, we are the authors of our own destruction.

It would be delusional thinking to believe that we have struck a blow at terrorism.  Save for its own isolated terrorist government, terrorist organizations did not exist in Iraq before we destabilized the government and created the conditions in which they could exist.  In fact, we obliterated the very middle class which both intellectually and economically could work as a bulwark against terrorism.  Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees have fled to other countries and tens of thousands have come to the United States.  Then we armed those who could not flee.  Given what is left and the hatred between the Shia and Sunni, civil war is inevitable.

Furthermore, it would be delusional thinking to believe that the U.S. will ever leave Iraq.  The formula for so-called success was to simply pull American troops back into safe enclaves where battered morale through stop-loss and mission-less meaning degrades our military.  One need look no further than the rising amount of veterans' psychological claims against our government which have risen to about half those who have served, and overwhelmingly non-combatant claims.  These enclaves will remain as chaos will envelop the country.

Finally, it would be delusional thinking to believe that we have inconvenienced terrorist organizations.  Those low-life scum who attacked us on 9/11 hoped they would kill a few thousand Americans and cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars.  To the delight of their masters, they have indirectly killed many more Americans and cost America hundreds of billions.  And the account is still open.  And in the bargain our policies have killed hundreds of thousands of mostly non-terrorists, which has strengthened the terrorist cause.

So, now we have placed the same General in Afghanistan to effect the same kind of "success."  The war in Iraq was not worth fighting.  The war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting.  No, it is not over in Iraq anymore than it it over in Afghanistan.  It will take real leadership to end both wars.

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