Will the Last Regiment to Leave Iraq Please Turn ON the Lights

Why the myth of the end of Iraq War?
What does it mean “the last regiment?”
There are still 50, 000 U.S. troops, special forces with missions in Iraq.
The “conflict” is over? The occupation has ended? The bases and contractors are out? The words “mission accomplished” are banned but what is the substitute for them? Obama and Biden, war administrators, present speeches that are not true and resonate with words like combat troops, Iraqi sovereignty, end of conflict for U.S….
The photo shows “the last two soldiers” in a hurry to be in the safety of the barb wire. Iraq is left behind the barb wire and barriers… Now the War in Iraq is called Operation New Dawn by Obama! Will that name give it better outlook in the elections? The mainstream media will certainly help! Let Iraqi suffer in silence.

Not just leaving — doing double time, not looking back. A wasteland all around, no green on the ground, no cloud in the sky, no shade from a blazing sun that burns the heavens. Darkness falls on those left behind.

August 18th is 7 years 108 days plus or minus since a little man gave us a proud thumbs up from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Heck of job.

As in many circumstances, there are multiple views….one could say “Darkness falls on those left behind.” Most of the so called last soldiers on which the mainstream media recently focused left during the night and with Kuwait being to the east, I would imagine that the sun is rising here, not setting. (But I could be wrong) Hence, another view is a new dawn approaches with the leaving of these troops, that there is light ahead. We’ll have to see what plays out next (though with 50k troops left, probably not much).

I would like to add, though, that the downfall of Hussein was a good thing despite the manipulation of data to justify the war. He did, in fact, have wmd (gas) that he used on a civilian population in Kalabja and perhaps others (though there are some who say it was Iran that did it)….perhaps the Iraqi people as a whole are better off now without him. Were the deaths, both civilian and military, worth it? The financial costs? Will we ever really know?

I completely agree that these soldiers could be running towards a rising sun. The twin flags assert a stiff breeze. something that suggests late afternoon more than early morning in my part of the world but may indeed suggest the opposite on the Kuwaiti border. Either way, the general bleakness of sky and earth imply bad times for those left behind, falling darkness if this is evening or a real scorcher ahead if this is settling dawn.

Were the deaths, both civilian and military, worth it? The financial costs? Will we ever really know?

From where I sit we already know. No it was not worth even a fraction of the burdens assessed to everyone involved. Not counting the generation or more of squandered opportunity costs associated with the deaths and lifelong maimings incurred because of our incursion into Iraq.

I will always believe that a group of well studied folks at the State Department described what Cheney wanted to hear: We need to have a presence in the middle east. It had to go down like that because they fudged, lied, and forced a man of morals to lie to the UN. That was the whole point. To have an Army at the ready and use it to destroy Al Qaeda. It backfired big time. And I’m still waiting for my free tank of gas.