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December 14, 2011 8:15 PM   Subscribe

Tomorrow marks the official end of the Iraq war. The Obama administration describes it as a 'promise kept'. The war resulted in a great many casualties. Although the final troop movement out of the country is not scheduled to begin for a few days, history will record December 15 as the end of the war, as the flag of the American military mission in Bagdhad is lowered and returned to the US. Scholars at Brown University estimate the total cost of the war at 265,000 dead and $3-4 trillion dollars. The main contenders for the Republican party's 2012 nomination both expressed approval and disapproval. Previously, 339 times.
posted by anigbrowl (90 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Mission Accomplished.

/said with irony, sadness, joy, relief, regret, disappointment, anger, and a prayer that we've learned our lesson
posted by tomswift at 8:18 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


The Iraq war was the single worst foreign policy decision in the history of the United States.
posted by vibrotronica at 8:18 PM on December 14, 2011 [28 favorites]


I think "Axis of Evil" was the first public clue.
posted by wrapper at 8:21 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]


.
posted by 4ster at 8:23 PM on December 14, 2011


I wouldn't have believed, even well into 2008, how quiet this would feel.

Just quiet and sad.
posted by hackly_fracture at 8:26 PM on December 14, 2011 [14 favorites]


Tomorrow marks the official end of the Iraq war. The Obama administration describes it as a 'promise kept'.

and

Mission Accomplished.

Baloney!.

We are still embedded - deeply embedded - in that region with a transfer of some troops and material to Afghanistan.

Our presence there is a blight on our country, a waste of human life (on both sides), and a disgusting disgrace of transparency from our so-called "leaders" - Obama among them.

It's great that soldiers get to come home, but it really irks me to listen to Obama spin this event in ways that are far from the truth. Man, Wall Street knew what it was doing when it bought Obama!
posted by Vibrissae at 8:27 PM on December 14, 2011 [19 favorites]


vibrotronica: "The Iraq war was the single worst foreign policy decision in the history of the United States."

This sounds hyperbolic, but I fear you are probably right.

But I'm confused: is the U.S. military remaining in the country in any fashion at all? Or are we handing the keys over to the Iraqis and really, truly vacating, like in Vietnam?
posted by zardoz at 8:27 PM on December 14, 2011


It accomplished most of the goals its planners intended. Unfortunately.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:28 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


Between 100,000 and 1,000,000 Iraqis have been killed as well. Just saying.
posted by anthill at 8:28 PM on December 14, 2011 [4 favorites]


Sure glad the USA learned from this terrible mistake, right?
posted by swift at 8:29 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


Anyway, I'll see you guys at the parade!
posted by swift at 8:31 PM on December 14, 2011


> The Iraq war was the single worst foreign policy decision in the history of the United States.

Seriously? Getting involved in WWI or allowing the Treaty of Versailles be imposed on Germany were way worse.
posted by codswallop at 8:31 PM on December 14, 2011 [11 favorites]


WWOOOOOO! NOW WE HAVE THE TROOPS TO INVADE IRAN!!!1~!!!111!! LETS GET THEM MULLAHS!!1!!

Oh sweet gods of reason, prove me wrong. I double-dog dare you.
posted by Panjandrum at 8:34 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


Between 100,000 and 1,000,000 Iraqis have been killed as well. Just saying.

The "casualties" link in the post goes to a Wikipedia page with various estimates of those deaths.
posted by Forktine at 8:34 PM on December 14, 2011


The Iraq war was the single worst foreign policy decision in the history of the United States

The Iraq war was the greatest crime of the 21st century. But what's truly shocking is the total lack of accountability. There have been no investigations, no trials, no real consequences of any sort. Extraordinary crimes have been committed, from torture to widespread military-led propaganda against the citiens, and there hasn't been the slightest discussion about how to ensure that this doesn't happen aain. And so it will happen again. Sooner than you can imagine the same fools will goad America into a completely needless "preemptive war" based on lies and our precious media will get behind it 1000% and we'll be right back where we started.
posted by nixerman at 8:35 PM on December 14, 2011 [38 favorites]


It's over, heh? Is that an embassy in your pants or are you just happy to see me?
posted by quadog at 8:35 PM on December 14, 2011 [5 favorites]


Between 100,000 and 1,000,000 Iraqis have been killed as well. Just saying.

They are included in the 265,000 figure behind the "Scholars at Brown University estimate" link. That figure is described as "conservative" -- I imagine it rests on numbers more like Iraq Body Count (which counts only confirmed deaths, and is thus by definition an undercount) and not on the much larger numbers in the Lancet study (which infers numbers of deaths from statistical samples, and could be either an undercount or an overcount.)
posted by escabeche at 8:37 PM on December 14, 2011


The Iraq war was the single worst foreign policy decision in the history of the United States.

Vietnam was pretty bad too. Just so we remember.

But yeah. This is good. But not "good" in the way that V-Day was good. Good in the way that something horrible has ceased to continue (at least to a major degree.)

I hope that we learn our lesson, but really, I cannot put the force of belief behind that hope.

I hope that the Iraqi people are able to find peace and stability within their borders absent our presence, but I have no belief that our presence there was doing much to assist that.

I hope the returning troops are at least greeted with candy and flowers from their loved ones, since they obviously weren't by the people they were "liberating."

I hope that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al at some point feel the weight of this catastrophe on their souls, and that one of them eventually does the McNamara thing and writes a book about what an awful idea this was, and how poorly carried out.

I hope that the history textbooks have the guts to mention that Iraq/Hussein had no connection to 9/11 sooner rather than later.

I hope that the returning troops don't feel devastation from the current job market.

I hope that we investigate the consequences of using private contractors like Blackwater in order to carry out killing on the behalf of the U.S.

I hope the U.S. is eventually able to earn back some credibility in international diplomacy.

Beneath it all, somehow, I hope.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:38 PM on December 14, 2011 [12 favorites]


and the size of our "embassy" will be about 15,000, or about the size of all of our other embassies around the world combined. Yes, we have withdrawn.
posted by caddis at 8:39 PM on December 14, 2011 [14 favorites]


I would say Vietnam was worse than Iraq, but Vietnam was a slow-motion disaster that stemmed from the poor decisions of three different presidential administrations. And in the case of Vietnam, at least there really were communists present.

Iraq was all W, and it was all bullshit, all the time. It "wins" the pound-for-pound title by a country mile.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:42 PM on December 14, 2011 [8 favorites]


I vividly remember the day we started the war in Iraq (this one, not the one from the 90s). I was sitting at home watching CNN, reporters embedded with troops describing what was going on there. I just kept thinking that we were really doing it; we were really in there, a war with no exigency, a war of pure choice, something so easily avoided, our government was choosing to foist this violence, this mayhem, this death onto America. My feelings alternated between terror and awe. Part of me really just wanted our boys to kick some ass, to be heroes, but that was just lingering nostalgia for a just war that probably never really existed.

I am glad that we are pulling out of that country. I am ashamed that our nation manufactured that war in Iraq. I am ashamed at the loss of life that occurred, American soldiers, kids really, as well as the families torn apart in Iraq.

How beautiful it would have been if history could have taken its natural course, and Iraq could have been part of the uprisings occurring around the Middle East now, making its own destiny as every nation should.
posted by jabberjaw at 8:43 PM on December 14, 2011 [5 favorites]


A co-worker once told me the United States would always be at war, because as calculated and efficient as our military training procedures are, nothing trains warriors like war.

Another co-worker recently told me that his buddy in the Army said a lot of US materiel and forces are moving to Korea.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:43 PM on December 14, 2011


.
posted by Iridic at 8:53 PM on December 14, 2011


official end

Officials say lots of things.
posted by Trurl at 8:54 PM on December 14, 2011 [3 favorites]


First an aircraft carrier, now a web page. I wonder how the next president will declare the end of the Iraq war.
posted by pompomtom at 8:57 PM on December 14, 2011 [15 favorites]


Now that the troops are coming home from Iraq, there are plenty of replacements for the 100,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:04 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]


What an utter and complete fucking waste of lives and money and time and nerves and brain cells, not to mention fucking over the nation with debt....holy fuck, I just do not understand how the GOP does not crawl under a rock to die from shame and embarrassment for being responsible for it and the war criminals Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Rove/Perle who precipitated it, supported it, lied, about it, mismanaged it, and fucked it up so badly are walking about in broad daylight.

I honestly do not understand how Neoconservatism is even uttered in conversation without people laughing at the very idea of it.

Why is the American Enterprise Institute even still around. It's fellows should be forceably retired and put out to pasture or sent to jail. It's white and policy papers that so disastrously misguided the Bush admin. sent to a place where they can be picked apart and exposed for the deafening and numbing incompetence and displayed, so the same mistakes are never repeated, its building in DC should be demolished in a controlled explosion and the earth upon which it stands should be salted. And upon that land should be built a Clown College.
posted by Skygazer at 9:05 PM on December 14, 2011 [32 favorites]


Scratch that "clown college." It should obviously have a sort of shrine to world peace built upon it.
posted by Skygazer at 9:07 PM on December 14, 2011


Now that the troops are coming home from Iraq, there are plenty of replacements for the 100,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan.

And Libya , and Yemen, and Korea, and ...
posted by dirigibleman at 9:09 PM on December 14, 2011 [4 favorites]


I marched in anti-war protests in 2003 and 2004. I remember being shocked at the diversity of the crowd. There were bandannaed anarchist kids and moms with babies and old women and military people and people of all colors and shapes.

I knew the war was morally bankrupt, wasteful and baseless, so I marched even knowing that it was kind of pointless. It was obviously game on for all involved. It was happening whether we liked it or not.

The knowledge that it is "ending" tomorrow makes me feel just as angry, confused and frustrated as I did then, with the added addition of sorrow and grief for all that was lost and all that was thrown away.
posted by mynameisluka at 9:09 PM on December 14, 2011 [6 favorites]


I will be the first to admit that Obama has, in many ways, been a disappointment. However, I can't see how we can fail to acknowledge that, in terms of the war in Iraq, he walked into a hell of a mess. I stand firmly in the anti-war camp, I started protesting in the '60's, my activist wife still has me marching (she's a better person than I am!), but I will not attempt to believe we could have walked out of there the minute Obama took office without leaving a mess.... we needed to clean up after ourselves. Did we do that well, probably not... But I do believe that Iraq is in better shape now than it would have been if we had exited when Bush headed back to Texas.

As for Korea... I don't think that's an apples to apples comparison, it might have been back in the early 70's, but not now.

And, in retrospect, as we think about the war in Iraq... here's the mirror image for you...
posted by HuronBob at 9:13 PM on December 14, 2011 [7 favorites]


Navelgazer, are you making several points, or writing poetry?
posted by Panjandrum at 9:16 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


I think BO's speech was probably harder than most to write and while I'm sure there's no perfect spiel for such an occasion, I think this was about the right pitch:
"It's harder to end a war than begin one. Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq - all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering - all of it has led to this moment of success.

Now, Iraq is not a perfect place. It has many challenges ahead. But we're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people.

We're building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home."
I saw (somewhere?) of some republican commentator saying that he'd better include the word "victory" all over the place in the speech (after questioning whether it was right at all for the prez to deliver a 'political' speech to troops) - come to think of it, it might have been a Fox bit I accidentally saw on youtube. Anyway, yeah, glad the speech was modest in the tub-thumping stakes.
posted by peacay at 9:19 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]


The Iraq war was the greatest crime of the 21st century.

Ojala.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:23 PM on December 14, 2011 [4 favorites]


The Iraq war was the greatest crime of the 21st century.

Keeping in perspective, the century is only 11 years old...
posted by critzer at 9:25 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]




This is the war that broke America, forever.

Mission accomplished.
posted by bardic at 9:28 PM on December 14, 2011 [6 favorites]


Surreal NY Times story published today, about hundreds of pages of classified documents that turned up in a junkyard in Baghdad.
posted by churl at 9:38 PM on December 14, 2011


....................................................................................................
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x 265
posted by scrowdid at 9:39 PM on December 14, 2011 [3 favorites]


"So this means we'll cut defense spending now, right?"
HA!! HEHEHAHAAAAHAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!


We are so fucked.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 9:41 PM on December 14, 2011 [4 favorites]


wow

265,000 dead and $3-4 trillion dollars

We got sucker punched in the face, so we kicked someone else's ass.
Even Democrats sold it to us with a $93 billion price tag
posted by minkll at 9:55 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]


So this means we'll cut defense spending now, right?

Yup. The DoD is already preparing for budget 'shortfalls,' as one of my bosses termed it, and we were prepped for 'doing more, without more.'

Navy considers decommissioning carrier, air wing

Seabee battalion drawdown, one of two (at least)

One of the best things the President did was to make the DoD budget whole, instead of requesting simple operating funds yearly, and then asking Congress for special 'contingency/GWOT funds' on what seemed like a quarterly basis.

I'm glad we're 'leaving' Iraq. The sooner the better.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:57 PM on December 14, 2011


The betrayal, that betrayal, ended. All kinds of hell to twist it and make things as hopeless as possible, but damnit, its over.
posted by zangpo at 9:59 PM on December 14, 2011


From the NY Times story churl linked: The 400 pages of interrogations, once closely guarded as secrets of war, were supposed to have been destroyed as the last American troops prepare to leave Iraq. Instead, they were discovered along with reams of other classified documents, including military maps showing helicopter routes and radar capabilities, by a reporter for The New York Times at a junkyard outside Baghdad. An attendant was burning them as fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp.

That tale seems a little fishy to me.
posted by brina at 10:01 PM on December 14, 2011 [5 favorites]


As far as I understand it, the DoD budget will not be increasing at the same rate as during the Bush years - that is, the rate of increase is decreasing.

Most famously, the F22 fighter program has ended, and the two Seabee battalions are going away - no negotiation. The DDG-X/DDG-1000 program was severely curtailed. The LCS program is proper fucked, and probably on the chopping block too.

I'd expect BRAC 2015 to be swift and severe. The Joint Base concept is really catching on.

/I'm in the US Navy, if you couldn't tell.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:35 PM on December 14, 2011


fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp

sounds like a red herring
posted by stbalbach at 10:40 PM on December 14, 2011


This doesn't remotely help as much as I once hoped it would.

. x well, infinity I suppose.
posted by Space Kitty at 10:44 PM on December 14, 2011


It's hard to say what the biggest consequences of the Wars on Afghanistan and Iraq are, but one thing that they did was make us aware of how little democracy we really have. Around the world there were millions of people marching against the war, with the two million in London on February the 15th 2003 being the biggest demonstration ever, all to be ignored. We could protest all we wanted but because our rulers wanted these wars, they got them. Didn't help that Labour were complicit and the Democrats fscking useless, if not actively cheerleading the war.

We tend to laugh or worry abour elections in e.g. Russia, for going through the motions of democracy when in practise it's ruled as an autocracy, but when push came to shove and the biggest political issue of the decade was to be decided on, our voice didn't count either. It's no wonder so many people have lost faith in politics.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:55 PM on December 14, 2011 [17 favorites]


The Iraq war was the greatest crime of the 21st century. But what's truly shocking is the total lack of accountability.
I'd be hard-pressed to disagree, nixerman, and when reflecting on how those in power not only evaded accountability, but profited from this crime, I usually recall this passage from The Gulag Archipelago:
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand-fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. It is for this reason that they are growing up 'indifferent.' Young people are acquiring the conviction that foul deeds are never punished on earth, that they always bring prosperity. It is going to be uncomfortable, horrible, to live in such a country.
But thinking back to all the flags and car magnets from the last decade, I can't be sure that most of us in the US recognized this as a crime: popular opinion waned only as casualty counts increased, the length of operations approached that of our involvement in the second world war, and the hollowness of official claims became more broadly evident and discussed.

For those whose support waned (and presumably became disillusioned), I wonder if they didn't feel somewhat a sense of having dirty hands. And for someone like me who held all the right opinions, but did nothing, owing to a deep reserve of cynicism, well ... there was a new crisis approaching us all to divert our attention.
posted by rakeswell at 11:16 PM on December 14, 2011 [5 favorites]


Mentioned in the NYT article about the junkyard:
That sense of American impunity ultimately poisoned any chance for American forces to remain in Iraq, because the Iraqis would not let them stay without being subject to Iraqi laws and courts, a condition the White House could not accept.
What's interesting is that Obama was actually negotiating to keep troops in Iraq indefinitely, but couldn't get the Iraqi government to agree for U.S immunity. One of the reasons for that is actually due to leaked wikileaks memos.
posted by delmoi at 11:23 PM on December 14, 2011 [6 favorites]


Mais où sont les warbloggers d'antan ?
posted by y2karl at 11:38 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]


war is over if you want it
posted by Sailormom at 11:49 PM on December 14, 2011


Yglesias is at slate.
posted by stratastar at 1:00 AM on December 15, 2011


Iraq throws open doors to US firms as army exits: "We are not satisfied with the number of US corporations in Iraq... All sectors of the economy are there, open for business for American business."
posted by stinkycheese at 1:12 AM on December 15, 2011


The "casualties" link in the post goes to a Wikipedia page with various estimates of those deaths.

Yeah, got to side with Forktine on this one. I was settling in for a 24 hour youtube montage of every man woman and child slain with "America Fuck Yeah" looping in the background and all I got was a crappy Wikipedia page.
posted by Tuatara at 1:59 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


Our troops are gone, but I bet we keep a firm hand in Iraqi politics.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 2:09 AM on December 15, 2011


This war is similar to Vietnam in two respects. First, war-mongers will insist that we could have "won," whatever that means, if only the politicians and hippies had allowed the military to conduct a scorched-earth campaign. Second, we're such navel gazers that we focus on our own tiny number of military casualties while completely ignoring the fact that the number of children who died alone dwarfs our casualties.
posted by 1adam12 at 3:50 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


This war is similar to Vietnam in two respects. First, war-mongers will insist that we could have "won," whatever that means, if only the politicians and hippies had allowed the military to conduct a scorched-earth campaign.

I'm doubting this. Mostly because America did win. And the prize turned out to be nothing at all.
posted by srboisvert at 4:47 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


Third time's the charm, right guys? *fingers crossed*
posted by indubitable at 4:48 AM on December 15, 2011


Chris Hondros's (R.I.P.) photo of the screaming child covered with the blood of her dead parents, killed by U.S. troops, will always be the defining image of the Iraq war for me. If I had the funds I would erect a large and unavoidable billboard with that image outside the windows of everyone in the Administration and the media (e.g., Tom "Suck. On. This." Friedman, Andrew "the Decadent Left" Sullivan) who participated in and sold the idea of the Iraq War to the American people. If there was justice in this universe, they would have to see that image every day for the remainder of their lives.

The five-year old girl in that photo, Samar Hassan, is now 12, and saw that photo this year for the first time. As an American citizen, even though I protested against the war, my tax dollars helped to pay for that atrocity and for every other atrocity committed by U.S. troops, whether unintentionally or intentionally.

I'm so sorry, Samar, so very sorry.
posted by longdaysjourney at 4:55 AM on December 15, 2011 [12 favorites]


It isn't over until gas goes below 2$ a gallon.
posted by Renoroc at 5:18 AM on December 15, 2011


Hey, at least we found and secured those weapons of mass destruction.
posted by Legomancer at 5:32 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


> implying that Iraq is stable and self-reliant
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:36 AM on December 15, 2011


The Iraq war was the single worst foreign policy decision in the history of the United States.

Vietnam was worse. But this one is way up there. First thing I ever marched against. My late uncle came on a school bus from Wisconsin to protest it. He called me on my cell from another area and said "I think people standing here are unhappy with the late war." Funny guy. I miss him.

Glad this is done.
posted by Ironmouth at 6:49 AM on December 15, 2011


I hope that the returning troops don't feel devastation from the current job market.

I'm afraid there's no chance of that - they already are.

Every inch of this is a tragedy, every aspect and every possible angle on this is awful. And I don't believe it's truly over, but at least it's much less, now.

So. Over/under on time till the invasion of Iran?
posted by mstokes650 at 7:04 AM on December 15, 2011


Oh, they'll be digging up mass graves for years to come.

Some mass graves don't have to be dug up, they have been in plain sight for decades.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:14 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


So will we be celebrating VI day on the 15th or the next nearest Monday?
posted by Gungho at 7:21 AM on December 15, 2011


.
posted by introp at 7:51 AM on December 15, 2011


Vietnam looks worse in retrospect now, and surely a whole lot more people were killed, but as was pointed out earlier in the thread, Vietnam was a tar baby that we got stuck to one small bad decision at a time. With Iraq, it was one, single, huge, bad decision. It happened in the midst of another crisis where we had troops in the field, and we just flat out turned around and attacked the wrong country.

AS for Obama, even though i had my doubts about him and knew that he was not, from my point of view, the ideologically ideal candidate, I voted for him in the Democratic primary for one reason: Senator Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq war. I will never, ever cast a vote for anyone who was in public office and signed off on that monstrously bad decision. If you voted for the war, you are unfit to hold office.
posted by vibrotronica at 8:34 AM on December 15, 2011 [2 favorites]


Over/under on time till the invasion of Iran?

Cheney urges “a quick airstrike” against Iran
posted by homunculus at 9:09 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


This war made me an independent.
posted by Avenger50 at 9:21 AM on December 15, 2011


Yeah, Bush said it was over too.

It isn't over. American soldiers, this time an unaccountable mercenary army, is still killing people in in Iraq. It isn't over until people paid by the US government aren't patrolling the streets and killing Iraqis.
posted by sotonohito at 9:32 AM on December 15, 2011 [3 favorites]


homunculus: " Cheney urges “a quick airstrike” against Iran"

I'm glad that editorial points out the obvious: there would be no such thing as a "quick" airstrike on Iran. Also that his administration wound up apologizing to China for a similar incident.

I miss the good old days when ex-presidents and vice presidents retired and kept their mouths shut about current administrations.
posted by zarq at 9:55 AM on December 15, 2011 [2 favorites]


It isn't over. American soldiers, this time an unaccountable mercenary army, is still killing people in in Iraq. It isn't over until people paid by the US government aren't patrolling the streets and killing Iraqis.

HOLLA!

The conquest of Iraq isn't over, our empire is merely trading Legionaires for Mercenaries/Auxillia. Yes, we're an empire, yes our military has been moving to a Roman-style model for some time now.

No, Iraq is not over.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:59 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Promise kept" is probably the most cynical and selfish way to frame this as one can imagine.
posted by swift at 10:01 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


war nerd
posted by telstar at 2:08 PM on December 15, 2011


Cheney urges “a quick airstrike” against Iran

Duck Cheney of the twenty-third and a half centuryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!
posted by telstar at 2:17 PM on December 15, 2011


there's no way the US would pull another full scale invasion like that. I hope.

I wish I had your optimism.
posted by mstokes650 at 6:23 PM on December 15, 2011


Post-American Iraq by the Numbers
posted by homunculus at 1:13 PM on December 17, 2011






Panetta: Iraq War was “worth it”
posted by homunculus at 4:56 PM on December 20, 2011




Shortly before we left Sleiman by the banks of the river, another sheikh interrupted our meeting. He was carrying the eyes of a wolf that his men had recently captured. The wolf had died overnight, yet even removed from its body and cradled in tissue paper, the eyeballs looked stark and menacing.

That's because they were WOLF EYES
posted by stinkycheese at 7:33 PM on December 20, 2011 [1 favorite]






There Goes the Last War Justification
posted by homunculus at 9:47 AM on December 23, 2011




Legacy: Who Is Accountable In Iraq?
posted by homunculus at 11:12 AM on December 23, 2011




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