After nearly nine years, the death of over 115,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 4,400 US troops, and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars, President Barack Obama has said the last American soldier would leave Iraq by year’s end with his head held high.

The troops are proud, possibly, but was it worth it? The Shock and Awe war was one of America’s longest and with Vietnam, its most divisive conflict. It began with Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush invading Iraq in 2003, on less than water tight information that Saddam Hussein was endangering the world with weapons of mass destruction. The arms were never found and what followed were US troops embroiled in a bitter insurgency which America, which thought it would be welcomed with roses and kisses for toppling Saddam, had not been prepared for. The US learned early and never got over the fact that stability would not arrive on the back of an Abrams (US military tank).

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http://arabnews.com/opinion/editorial/article524258.ece

NOTE BY THE EDITOR: How the US brings democracy to the rest of the world looks to me just like an abusive husband who says to his wife: “I will beat you until you love me”. (and does).

ADDITIONAL NOTE BY THE EDITOR: Reading about US soldier’s experience in Iraq and from the little contact that I did have with them (mainly at the ‘Defacs’ (cantens) at US military bases and airports in Iraq, I would say most of them are leaving ‘without their heads held high’ (meaning they are not really proud of what they had to do and go through).