Finally, its over.

The last forces are leaving Iraq. about 9 years too late-but they are leaving, thanks be to God.

Now if you peruse my archives, you will find that I have not been a fan of the adventure since day 1. And now-I still believe, that for whatever tactical successes we had, the war was a strategic mistake for the United States. Like Britain’s ill advised adventure in Suez in 1956, the corrosive affects of the war on the US military, the US economy, and the psyche of America will continue for at least a generation.

And what do we have to show for it?

Not very much. Sure Saddam is gone, but what have got in its place? A shaky and corrupt Iraqi government, and a resurgent Iran.  A real enemy that we ignored, except when we were borrowing money from him-China-labored under no such burdens and is expanding militarily.

But we have the rise of democracy in the Middle East you say. I’m not so sure-Egypt is having elections and the wrong guys are winning. Iraq is certainly not an ally for us-she can’t be she has too many closer folks who don’t like us to worry about. Syria and Libya? Don’t ask. Do we know how either of those countries will turn out?

In the end, I think history will judge the Bush Administration harshly for both the run-up to the Iraq War and its initial execution. In the wake of the September 11th attacks, which had no connection at all to the regime of Saddam Hussein, they exploited the nation’s fear of terror from the Middle East to ramp up war fever against a nation that we had gone to war against ten years before, and whom we’d been staring at, and striking, across a no-fly zone ever since. Saddam was developing a secret chemical and biological weapons program, we were told, even though the United Nations weapons inspectors never found any evidence of the same. There were whispers about a secret nuclear weapons program, which turned out to be entirely unfounded. Yes, it was true that every major intelligence service in the world believed that Saddam had a WMD program, but what nobody seemed to realize was that the intelligence was based on unreliable witnesses and, apparently, an effort by Saddam himself to make the world think he had them. Because his real enemy was not the US but Iran.

We must remember this misadventure-and above all remember the Soldiers Sailors Airman and Marines who died or were wounded. George W. Bush certainly did them no favors by the reckless rush to war and its aftermath. They must be remembered-for their sacrifices. And we must vow to learn for their hard work and sacrifice and not make such sacrifices again.

““No words, no ceremony can provide full tribute to the sacrifices which have brought this day to pass,” the defense secretary said. “I’m reminded of what President Lincoln said in Gettysburg, about a different war, in a different time. His words echo through the years as we pay tribute to the fallen in this war: ‘The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.’ ”

Thank God its over.