4000 Dead to What Purpose?

waste -verb 1. to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander

It is not just that all these men and women died or that thousands more have been horribly maimed. That is tragedy enough but had they died for some good or noble cause their sacrifice might, in the grand scheme of existence, have been worthwhile. They did not.

• The United States is less safe. Iraq had never been a danger to the United States or its citizens. The Iraq War is a five year conflict against a people who were never a danger to the US. Insofar as the War has gifted Iran with a new ally in the form of Shi'ite Iraq we have only succeeded in strengthening an enemy.
  
• al Qaeda has flourished because of the war. The only al Qaeda-linked force in Iraq at the start of the was was Ansar al-Islam. They were safely ensconced in Kurdistan, outside of Saddam's reach. They were actually protected from attack by the United States controlled "No Fly Zone." Since the war, because of the war, al Qaeda had blossomed in Iraq.
  
• Iraq was not improved. Iraqis live in greater fear now than they did under the boot of Saddam's dictatorship. Gangs of rapists and kidnappers now operate with impunity throughout the country. Iraq under Saddam and an economic embargo was prosperous compared to the country the United States has forged. Five years into the war the capital of Baghdad has no electricity most of the time and won't for at least another five years.
  

After five years war backers are still parroting phrases like "complete the mission" that are kept undefined. We cannot achieve "victory" if the war lasts 100 years because no one, still, can explain what victory in Iraq will look like.

And still they die. Still they are maimed. Our soldiers who want to fight for their country have been made to die for a mirage. It is all just a big waste.