The war in Iraq  

The national debate over this war during the 2008 national elections disgusted me. Over the fallen bodies of our brave men and women politicians of every stripe stepped willingly to further their political ambitions. Maybe that's the way it has always been. Maybe I'm just paying attention more because after 911 we all are.

   Sadam Hussien needed to go. it was a mistake to leave him in power after the first Gulf War. We needed that fixed and it was. Had he not postured as if he had nuclear weapons we may never have gone back except to buy oil from him. Our country in the corporate world and in official circles did business with him for decades.

   The war cost greatly and continues to cost us precious American lives. I have sat, on multiple occasions, with our brave soldiers upon their return from battle. Each of them had wounds t their bodies that would never heal. I saw with my own eyes the terrible price they paid as AMERICANS. A dear friend of mine who served in Vietnam called moments before I wrote this story to say he was checking himself into the VA Hospital because the nightmares had returned. Our service men and women with no outward signs of injury will endure much of the same.

   The good news reported by a major network this week stated and showed how life has returned to normal for Iraquiis. In the Middle East a car bomb at a marketplace delivered by a Muslim extremist to kill and maim Muslims of a differnt sect apparently passes for normalcy. Sort of sounds like the decades long clashes between the Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland, except theirs was also a national identiy struggle. Remarkably the news report showed a civilian population that was indeed doing the kind of normal things you would expect from a modern society. My, what a turn around from just 5 months ago in the days prior to the U.S. presidential elections. Then the news reports from this same network were telling us that Iraq was hopelessly still at war with no possible end in sight. Amazing.

   If Iraq stays free and democratic for a century how will history report the war then? Will it say that the freedom of the Iraquii people was a worthwhile pursuit of the American people? Will they point to President Obama for his leadership on Iraq in both the Senate and then in the Whitehouse? Or will they recognize the true architects of that freedom?

   Today we can see clearly that the successful culmination of the war and it's aftermath was the work of Bush appointee Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who represents the one wise thing Obama has done so far.