Visual source: Newseum
The Oregonian:
Ask Scott McCrae the question that Americans are grappling with as the last troops come home from Iraq -- was it worth the costs? -- and for a few moments the man who lost his son to the war doesn't answer.
In the silent phone, you can imagine McCrae struggling, like so many Americans, to reconcile his pain and loss against Iraq's still-uncertain future. His son, Erik, two other Oregon soldiers and two New Jersey Guardsmen were killed by roadside bombs in a Baghdad ambush on June 4, 2004, the Oregon National Guard's deadliest day since World War II. [...]
When McCrae finally answers, his voice is quiet. "Was it worth Erik's life to me? Of course not. Was it worth it as a matter of American interests, our security, a less radical Middle East? I think so. I hope so." [...] Was it worth it? As we've said before in this space, we don't think so. This country lost far too many young soldiers such as Erik McCrae, the 25-year-old first lieutenant who was co-valedictorian in his graduating class at Tigard High School, someone who, in the words of former Gov. Ted Kulongoski, "represented the finest that our state has to offer."
The Star-Ledger:
Defenders of the U.S. invasion of Iraq are right about one thing: The country is better off today than it was under Saddam Hussein. It is no longer launching serial invasions of its neighbors. The government is no longer dropping poisonous gas on its own people. And Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is not relying on torture and oppression to hold power.
But with the end of American involvement after nearly nine years, it is clear those gains came at far too high a cost. This invasion was a tragic mistake.
The Christian Science Monitor:
As President Obama ends the American military mission in Iraq, we hope at least one Iraqi citizen will ask a departing US general:
“So, what have you left us?”
Perhaps the response will be similar to what Ben Franklin told a woman in Philadelphia after she asked him what the 1787 Constitutional Convention had just given the Americans:
“A republic – if you can keep it.”
The Quad-City Times:
President Barack Obama delivered on his clear campaign pledge to end our Iraq war. In remarks at Fort Bragg on Wednesday, the president conspicuously avoided any “mission accomplished” proclamation. But he emphasized how service and sacrifice, “preserved the gains of the last four years and made this day possible.”
“All the fighting, all the dying and the building … all of it has led to this moment of success,” he told troops at Fort Bragg.
This “moment of success” occurred because of the lifetime of sorrows shared by the family and friends of the heroes we remember on today’s page. Our thoughts and prayers remain with them.
The Journal & Courier:
Of all the words spoken about this country's involvement in Iraq in the past decade, thanks to the thousands of troops and newly minted veterans - along with their families - who sacrificed to serve need to be on top. Panetta on Thursday emphasized that it "has not been in vain."
But there's no avoiding the lingering pains suffered, through those who died and through an economy stalled during the duration of the war, by an ill-advised entry into this task. History will not look back kindly at the U.S. march to war. And it's good to finally say goodbye.
Now, we just need to cross fingers, wait and hope that Iraq can actually govern itself safely and soundly.
Tom Hayden:
As the United States completes its withdrawal from Iraq, it is worth pausing to remember the determined peace activists who opposed the war from the start, including one who took up their cause and became president. [...]
In the years leading up to the 2008 election, there were at least 10 national antiwar demonstrations that drew more than 100,000 participants each. The movement helped Rep. Barbara Lee to rise from a lone war opponent in Congress to the leader of a bloc of as many as 200 representatives calling for an end to the wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Those combined forces — the peace movement and lawmakers who opposed continuing the Iraq war — created a political climate that enabled Obama to end the Iraq war over the objections of many in the Pentagon and most of his Republican presidential rivals. [...]
Some peace activists view the fact that thousands of advisors and contractors will remain in Iraq on the U.S. Embassy payroll as evidence of a secret plan to continue the war by other means. But the war is as over as a war can be, and the peace movement should celebrate. Removing troops from Iraq will save tens of billions of dollars a year, and it will also save lives.