U.S. formally ends Iraq war with little fanfare

Bush,Cheney,Rumsfled, Wolfowitz....these guys were enjoying their lives in their ranch when thousand of families of all sides(US,UK,Iraq..etc.) were weeping for their losses! Wonderful the Iraq war, all those adversaries: China having a great boost of economy and military, Russia recovery from bankruptcy, North Korea got her bombs and Iran gained influences in Iraq! Except my fellow american friends struggling in poverty! Aha...Mr Bush/Cheney, you guys were 'lovely'!

An utterly unnecessary war that resulted in horrible loss of life and ends with Shia control of Iraq which will allow for easy domination by its Shia-dominated neighbor, Iran.

None of the reasons ever put forth by the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld administration stood up to scrutiny: no WMDs, no Iraq/9/11 connection, no nuclear weapons program etc.

The $800 billion price tag cited in this article is a lowball figure as they need to add in the many billions for decades to come for veterans.

In the early years of the Iraq invasion, there were many here who, as adoring Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld supporters, believed that the war would lead to a total victory and some sort of American-inspired peace, freedom and democracy for Iraq, and eventually much more of the ME. If we somehow got rid of Saddam and the rest of his terror regime, there would be a bright future for all Iraqis.

The questions often put forth by some of us long ago were like: "What would replace Saddam's regime in the power vacuum, especially after America's departure?" and "Won't the strongest group-most probably the Shias-eventually take control of the country and dispense with any semblance of democracy with the Sunnis and Kurds on the outside?"

All Americans should remember those veterans who volunteered for service and did their best. But all in all, just another sad chapter in another war of aggression for the United States of America.

The most gratitutes will be China,Russia, North Korea,Iran....... as america lost a decade and huge materials/money and lives!

Here comes Sharia law

So, who cares? It's their country, let them do what they want.

@just-a-guy AMEN Brother!! You said it just right.

Republicans are a war party. If elected Republicans change the whole posture of the nation.

These men, Bush, Cheny, Rumsfield, Wofowitz. As an American I have to apologize for them. The Cranberries wrote a song that sums up the character of such men - "Zombie" in 1994.

These Zombies are rage filled sociopaths....that decided to take the "socio-path" instead of the path to peace and disarmament. These zombies hunger for war and chaos.

We are living in a unique time, all of us. I believe this is the decade we can save ourselves from self-destruction or see ourselves engulfed into a purgatorium.

Social networking and the Internet has brought a voice to the people. Russian may save herself from re-electing the warlord that is Putin. We can see the world changing rapidly. Faster than we could ever imagine.

Let us hope that we can save ourselves from future zombies that will infect the world with madness.

And not a bleep from President Bush, that twit.

What a waste

Americans can lay the blame for this sorry excuse for a ‘mission’ at the feet of bush, cheney, etc. and their conservative pawns who voted them in and threw their support behind a war that should never have been fought.

And let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who lost their lives, were displaced and who have had their lives, health and future wrecked by the invasion.

Let’s hope no one comes on here, disgraces themselves and highlights their lack of knowledge by trying to hype this up as some kind of ‘liberation.’

"These men, Bush, Cheny, Rumsfield, Wofowitz. As an American I have to apologize for them. The Cranberries wrote a song that sums up the character of such men - "Zombie" in 1994"

MTV. The real world.

Officially they declared the end of the war, but in reality it continues, and once the U.S. are fully withdrawn Iran is stepping into the vacum created by the withdrawal.

In fact Iran is already stepping in, i can see the war in Iraq unofficially continuing but not with Iraq as the enemy but Iran being the enemy.

Here comes Sharia law

We did get a lot of oil, but why did it have to costs the lives of so many people on both sides?

It'd be nice to think that we have learned what happens when unstoppable stupidity meets immovable hatred - but those any inclination to learn already knew, and the rest are too dependent on militancy for their paycheck to do so.

It'd also be nice to think that this would teach the hawks of the very real limits their measures hold - that it'd be at least a generation before this lesson is forgotten - but to hear current Republican presidential candidates is to sober up on that hope quickly: Iran! Iran is already the new target, and no doubt the hawks are formulating "lessons learned" and "new technological paradigms" and what not so that their new march to destruction will not appear to be what it absolutely will be: another costly, deadly road to nowhere.

Can we say mission accomplished now?

WilliB:

About WMDs, not only did Saddam have them, Saddam USED them. Ask the Kurds what chemical Ali did to them. And 80 tons of VX nerve gas remained undeclared, in spite of ceasefire conditions.

About nuclear weapons program, what the heck do you people think that Israel bombed in Osirak?

About 9/11, nobody in the Bush administration actually made that claim.

I never said anything about Hussein using chemical weapons in the 1980s against the Kurds. The issue was remaining stockpiles as of 2002/3 when the Bush administration made its case for war, and none have been found.

As far as the nuke question goes, you are rehashing things that happened in the early 1980s. The issue was what the Bush administration claimed to be true in 2002/3 leading up to our invasion; i.e. the attempts of the Hussein regime to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program.

Additionally, there were many statements made by Bush administration officials to plant the seed of doubt in the American public's minds that there might have been an Iraqi connection to 9/11. (I distinctly recall our old friend on JT going by the name "takuan" posting a list around 2004/5 detailing this.)

So, by your logic, because the Israelis bombed an Iraqi facility in 1981 and the Hussein regime gassed the Kurds in 1988, it was perfectly fine to invade Iraq in 2003. Brilliant.

An Iraq crippled by decades of war with Iran, the U.S. and allies and international sanctions, controlled by the U.S. and its no-fly zone after the first war until the start of the second, an Iraq that was reduced to third world status by 2003, it just had to be invaded by the U.S. to spread "freedom" in the country and later the region, or something to this effect.

It cost 4500 American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqis-probably hundreds of thousands if you include the entire period of 1991-2011-tens of thousands of more on all sides grievously wounded mentally and/or physically, $800 billion+ and counting for the U.S., all for the stupid hopes and dreams of the neocons in control of and influencing the White House.

The simple fact of the matter is that the 9/11 attacks gave the Bush administration a pretext to invade Iraq and do all the things the neocons had been dreaming of since the end of the first war in 1991.

They were wrong in their thinking, their planning, their justification and the execution of the war. It was a terrible, terrible mistake.

Thanks for all good comments on JT here. The 42nd Infantly is coming home within a couple of hrs today. Many of them served in Iraw more than once. Enough is enough to this Bush's war. I have never approved of that. Let's make sure we will never go back there.

Initially no fanfare needed. If, after 5 years Iraq remains peaceful and Democratic... then we should celebrate.

The only ones to benefit from these US led wars are the weapons manufactures, and the dirty/selfish politicians/senators who indirectly own shares in these profits by death businesses.

Watch this space, the US will invent some other cause soon to go after some other country. Have to keep the wheels in motion to maximize profits for the US military machine...

Worst debacle in U.S. history.

willi even sarge and the others have given up trying to use those rotten old arguments justifying the "WMDs" or alQaida links or nuclear programs that simply did not exist. There were as pathetic in 2002 as they are now.

Well, I was weally weally against the war but even I had to laugh at the first paragraph of the article. I join the fringe right wing for a change and laugh at the writers bias.

Yabits, I do not think the worst debacle for the USA was this mess in Iraq, I think almost everybody can agree that the worse mess was VIETNAM.

I feel that I should also note that while this war deserves the strong criticism that it is getting, I do support the troops who gave their best and were merely blindsided by the leadership. The decision was hardly ever theirs, and they should keep speaking up and seek ways to apply this experience towards better handling the future.

This was not a pretty war, I guess no war will ever be as pretty as Hollywood would want us to believe, but I do think Mr.Obama, our president is on the right track. Get the US troops out of that mess that idiot Bush Sr and then his beloved Jr got us into. Time for the USA to start taking more care of the people in the USA and let the Arabs settle their own differences there in Iraq etc..

the 'obvious TV war' maybe over but the foreigners accents will still be American as the multinationals move in backed by 'security" forces not wearing army gear...

We did get a lot of oil, but why did it have to costs the lives of so many people on both sides?

Thats news to me. Can you give me some links bout that. I want to read up on the US oil companies that profited.

That would be the election of Barack Obama.

The debacle of the Bush presidency ensured the election of President Obama. (A sixth-grader might not be able to make the connection.)

It is understandable how some conservatives hope, pray and otherwise rant about how they want the current U.S. president to fail. After the debacle of the Bush presidency, they only way they know how to save face is by dragging down someone else.

Geewiz, correction to my previous post. The 4th Infantly is coming home. My son is 42 yeaars old who was the first one to go and the last one to come home from Iraq. My bad. Too early of the day, not thinking properly. Sorry.

What if Iraq descends into chaos or civil war or gets an Iranian-style mis-leadership?

Then you go fight it. You like war so much, next time, it will be your turn to go. How about that?

Obama is just the latest dictator. Forget about democrary. It doesn't work. It's just a slogan the war mongers use to use to get our sons and daughters to go to war as cannon fodder for our oil companies.

Fortunately, no homicide bombers blew themselves up in Japan like what happened in Great Britain's subway system and tour bus in 2005. By unjustly expanding the war into Iraq, the US endangered their allies without necessity. The US needs to choose its wars better.

It is interesting to consider that if the US keeps engaging in unjust wars, then it is plausible that at some point Japan might need to distance itself from providing aid to the US military (fuel and military bases) to protect its self from the potential backlash of a war they cannot support simply because of its lack of justification. If things got bad enough, Japan would even need to be prepared to secure their own borders by means of only the SDF. Though I doubt things would ever get that bad, I was astonished at what the US did in Libya when I thought they had already learned their mistake from Iraq, and they even did so while the US administration was headed by President Obama no less. At least China essentially did the right thing by peacefully and respectfully pulling its people out.

In constructive terms, what now for the US? I would urge the US to put away their overly liberal view of the idea of pre-emptive strike which is so rarely necessary and which has been repeatedly misused now, follow the constraints of its own law when constitutionally valid, acknowledge international law by showing greater respect for the sovereignty of other nations, and wait for sufficient positivism before carefully beginning an ethical, step-by-step prosecution of a war. And, since the US has involved themselves, they should give the Iraqis a few (more?) modern universities as was requested in the article here. People who understand what is true and good are better able to choose it.

What war? The invasion just begun!

With 20/20 hindsight we can all give opinions on what the USA and the entire world should have know, should have done etc..I can sit here on my PC or my IPHONE and type away Yeah, the USA should have just bombed the hell out of Saddam Hussein and killed him and his family off, saved us a lot of money and time, lives, but maybe this would have been possible, but what would that DICK Cheney and all of these $$$$ hungry old farts in Washington and all of their cronies say?? No! No! We need to make a REAL WAR DAMMIT! Think of how much $$$$ there is to be made, prolong the war make $$$$$ hand over fist selling the troops $50?? $100 pizzas?? So much corruption in Washington and all of this making wars to make only a hand full of Americans FILTHY RICH, it is disgusting!

"Let's make sure we will never go back there"

What if Iraq descends into chaos or civil war or gets an Iranian-style mis-leadership?

yabits ( Dec 17, 12:15 AM ) - Wrong thread, dude, ha ha!

Madverts - You must have missed the footage of Iraqis stamping on the pulled-down statue of Saddam and crying, "Thank you, Mr. Booosh!"

Elbuda - yabits is never wrong. If he says Iraq was the worst debacle in U.S. history, then it was! Case closed!

MTV? The Real World? I wouldn't know. I stopped watching after Yo, MTV Raps, was cancelled.

@Nessie: NO! Absolutely mission unaccomplished! Do you believes the Iran war is unavoidable? A bigger and more costly war against Iran is inevitable, the iranians humilated uncle sam with their capture of US drone shall not goes without consequences and Iran has great influences in Iraq's shiite sector, thats why the tragedy shall continues! From my perspective,a war troubling america is good for world peace, at least they wont made troubles with China at the same time!

yabits: "Worst debacle in U.S. history"

That would be the election of Barack Obama.

"forcing the Americans to keep up to 170,000 troops in Iraq"

Yeah well, somebody had to keep the Iraqis from murdering each other, no one else was willing to contribute serious numbers of troops.

By the way, Barack Obama must be secretly relieved he doesn't have to deal with Saddam Hussein.

Patrick Hattman:

" None of the reasons ever put forth by the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld administration stood up to scrutiny: no WMDs, no Iraq/9/11 connection, no nuclear weapons program etc. "

Actually, that is not true. I really don´t understand why the Bush haters have to to resort to lies to criticize the Iraq intervention... aren´t the facts good enough?

About WMDs, not only did Saddam have them, Saddam USED them. Ask the Kurds what chemical Ali did to them. And 80 tons of VX nerve gas remained undeclared, in spite of ceasefire conditions. About 9/11, nobody in the Bush administration actually made that claim. That is invention of the Bush haters. About nuclear weapons program, what the heck do you people think that Israel bombed in Osirak? A chocolate factory? And of course his program did not stop with Osirak. To think otherwise is childish.

The Iraq intervention was stupid enough as it is, the Bush detractors apparently don´t realize they only hurt their cause by making up false accusations.

Bush & Co. believed that by "liberating" Iraq, they could start a great Arabic democratic domino effect; just read the famous Wolfowitz paper about the topic. How wrong they were!

Ironically, that is the same idiocy that Obama, Sarkozy, Cameron et al are believing in now, in their interventions in Egypt, Libya, Tunesia, and soon Syria. With the same disastrous results, which Obama et al apparently are ignorant of.

They are worse than Bush, because in addition to being they also show that they are incapable of learning from mistakes!

Obama said the last U.S. troops will cross the border into Kuwait with their heads held high. The ironic thing is if he'd had his way, Saddam Hussein would most likely STILL be in charge in Iraq.

"Here comes Sharia law"

On Obama's watch? No way!

Obama followed the Iraq withdrawal timeline outlined by the Bush Administration in 2005 (though he campaigned on a "promise" that he'd have all U.S. troops out of Iraq within 16 months of taking office on Jan. 20, 2009; meaning May 20, 2010).

Congratulations, Mr. Bush. You remain the greatest president of the 21th century.

RR

I thank Bush for the war of liberation!