The War in Iraq is over.
It has been over for years but Americans have failed to realize this; we continue to waste thousands of lives and trillions of dollars to keep fighting a war that has already been won. On May 1st, 2003 President George W. Bush stood on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared "Mission Accomplished." This image has since been mocked endlessly by progressive bloggers and late-night talk show hosts but those who do so neglect to realize the simple fact that he was right. The mission was accomplished. Whether or not the reasons we went to war with Iraq were justified (they were not), whether or not Iraq had any links to 9-11 (they did not), whether or not Saddam Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction (he was not), America went to war with Iraq and won.
But we never accepted it.
Instead of withdrawing after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, our forces remained, as occupiers, to assist in the formation of a new, democratic Iraqi government. Since that time we have been engaged in a violent occupation while still insisting on speaking with the lexicon of war. Our politicians and journalists use words like ‘surrender’ and ‘victory’ and ‘defeat,’ yet none of these terms are applicable to our military actions overseas. There can be no surrender, or victory, or defeat, when there is no institution that is capable of surrendering to us, claiming victory over us, or defeating us.
There are no British. There are no Nazis. There are no Soviets. The enemies we battle in Iraq are un-coordinated militias with no single affiliation, who attack us for occupying their sovereign nation. Most are local members of the Sunni and Shiite tribes, battling each other for control. A few call themselves Al Qaeda in Iraq, who were not there when we first invaded. Some are foreign fighters from Syria, Iran and Pakistan, drawn by blood-lust and the possibility of power. They are all insurgents, battling each other and us for control of a weak Iraq but they are not an army and this is baby-sitting, not a war. If we leave, it will not follow us to our shores.
One of the largest hurdles we have to overcome in withdrawing our troops from Iraq is in moving past these semantics. Too many chicken-hawks bristling with false machismo refuse to end the occupation because they erroneously equate closure with defeat. It is not. John McCain said recently that we could not leave until we were able to "bring our troops home with honor." Does that mean that if we bring them home now, after all they’ve accomplished and after all they’ve sacrificed, he doesn’t feel they can do so honorably? As long as we continue to operate by their terminology then a withdrawal of troops can only be viewed in that context. We must realize and accept that the Iraq War is over and that the actions and occupation of the last five years will continue on for the foreseeable future if, as is currently the case, there is no clear stopping point. Our goals of ending terrorism and establishing democracy are wonderful ideals but flawed as objective markers because there is no measurable standard of achievement. If there is no quantifiable goal then there can be no end.
I urge anyone who has an interest in bringing our troops home, who does not wish to needlessly sacrifice the lives and limbs of our bravest citizens, who does not wish to cripple America’s ability to respond to real threats and real wars, who does not wish to continue to spend trillions of dollars on an unnecessary occupation while our nation’s infrastructure crumbles and our cities decay, to cease calling the Occupation of Iraq by what it is not: a War.