“It is the end for the Americans only. Nobody knows if the war will end for the Iraqis, too.”
— Emad Risn, Iraqi columnist, writing for the Assabah al-Jadeed in Iraq.
As it was in Vietnam, so it is in Iraq, as it was always bound to be from the start.
The American military and all its brave members were thrust into another untenable war on another illogical, unproved and ultimately false pretext. It valiantly fought a native force to a standstill. And now, it is leaving the place of war with an uncertain legacy for its mission, and an uncertain future for Iraq.
In the wake of this war are unvarnished lessons of misguided politics, and the bones of tallied and untallied costs.