The end of combat operations in Iraq

No, the Iraq War isn't completely over. We still have 50,000 troops in the country, for training and support purposes. And they'll still be fighting (and dying). But this is a milestone, nonetheless. And it's a good time to look back, don't you think?

Seven years, billions of dollars (trillions in indirect and delayed costs), and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of lives,... all because of right-wing fantasies. Remember, the Iraq War had nothing to do with 9/1l.

Does it make you feel good as an American to know that we invaded a completely innocent country, a nation that had not attacked us and was no threat to us at all? Indeed, Saddam Hussein was the sworn enemy of the religious fanatics who did attack us (and the enemy of Iran, too, I might add).

But I guess if you can't catch the person responsible, you just attack whomever you can catch, huh? Even when it actually benefits our foes?

There were no "weapons of mass destruction." None. And there was no risk of them, because the United Nations was continuing to carry out weapons inspections in Iraq. We could have finished the war in Afghanistan, instead of starting a new war for no reason. Maybe we could have even won it, if we hadn't taken our eye off the ball and given the Taliban time to regroup. But Afghanistan was boring, right? And Iraq had all that lovely, lovely oil...

Of course, you weren't at risk, not at all. It would be someone else dying, not you, someone else's kid, not yours. After all, there's no draft these days, so why worry? Why even care? It would be like... reality TV, entertainment staged for your enjoyment.

And Iraq had lots and lots of oil, so the war was going to pay for itself. (A free war! How could it get better than that?) Yeah, right. Sort of like the promise that cutting taxes for the rich would pay for itself,... in right-wing fantasy land.

The right-wing turned us into our enemies. It was now America that invaded innocent countries. It was now America that tortured prisoners. It was now America that became the world bully, instead of the shining light on the hill. You must be so proud.

Yeah, we were attacked on 9/11, and then we used that tragic incident by a handful of religious extremists as an excuse to do anything the right-wing wanted. Instead of considering it a criminal act - as it was - and getting the world police forces behind us to catch the criminals responsible, we used it as an excuse to start two wars, to give tax cuts to the rich, and to destroy our own economy.

Oops! Destroying our own economy (and nearly destroying our own military) probably wasn't intended, was it? No, it's just that right-wing ideologues tend to be incompetent at real-world decisions. You see, they live in their own fantasy land, where what they really want to be true must be true. They live by faith, not evidence. The war was going to pay for itself. We'd be greeted as liberators. And tax cuts to the rich would trickle down to everyone else.

Seven years later, how does that decision look to you now? And you're going to put the Republicans back in power? Ha! What has happened to us? Have we Americans completely lost our minds?