Five Years of War

We've been at war for five years. Five years! But it hardly feels like war here at home. News reports of Iraq have faded from the front pages, replaced by the latest presidential campaign gaffe.

On 20 March (19 March in the US), we began a military campaign that would destroy the infrastructure and government of Iraq. That would destroy neighborhoods and create a reign of terror that continues today.

We started a war against a country that had nothing to do with the tragedy of 9-11.

We started a war against a country that had not threatened or attacked us.

We started a war against a despot whose smoke and mirrors were good enough to convince (erroneously) the powers that be (political and media) that he just might be a real threat.

We started a war that still has no end in sight.

And what do we have to show for it?

Gasoline will probably hit $4 a gallon this summer. Here, in the Seattle suburbs, diesel is $4.15.

We're rolling in debt, reversing the federal budge surplus in hand in 2000. We're over-extended with a dollar continuing to drop against the Euro.

Our military hospitals are full of maimed servicemen and women. Almost 4,000 servicemen and women have died.

Our military is stretched thin. A recent poll of "3,400 active and retired U.S. military officers by Foreign Policy magazine found that 88 percent agreed with the statement that 'The war in Iraq has stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin.'"

Our National Guard also remains stretched thin, as domestic "soldiers" are deployed to Iraq.

Iraqis believe we have destroyed their country. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed; thousands more have fled the country.

And we have one presidential candidate who feels it's OK to stay in Iraq forever, comparing such an occupation to current troops in Korea or Germany, for example. We've been in Iraq longer than we fought in either Germany or Korea -- and rationalization for those "wars" bears no resemblance to that for Iraq.

There was no link between Iraq and the terrorists who attacked the United States in 2001, and yet President Bush continues to link his war with "terrorism": "So long as terrorist danger remains, the United States of America will continue to fight the enemy wherever it makes its stand," AP reports.

Does the man have no shame? Do we?

^{Related:
Iraq War Resolution
Declassified Report: No Al Qaeda Link In Pre-War Iraq
The Lost Moral Compass
Iraq: The Fourth Anniversary
Vietnam and Iraq: The Tragedy of Unlearned Lessons
Iraq War Timeline, Foreign Policy Guide
Iraq War: Everything You Want (and Need) to Know, Middle East Guide}

From around the web:

• U.S. still mired in Iraq's ethnic discord, Kansas City Star editorial
• Bush: war a success; Critics: We disagree, The State
• 10 Unpleasant Truths About The War in Iraq, Huffington Post
• Anniversary of a Wrong-Headed Invasion, (South Africa) Business Day
• Bush's War, Five Years On, Washington Post