I Heard Somebody Say...

...That the war ended today

But everybody knows it's going still

--Devendra Banhart



As I've written before, I will never forget the day the United States invaded Iraq--March 20, 2003. I know that we have a long way to go before we've fully disengaged from Iraq, but there's something almost relieving about all of this, even if 50,000 troops will remain for the next year.

This is no helicopter-over-the-side retreat from Hanoi. It's a detached detachment, if that makes sense. It feels strange. There's no joy in it, as there was in the World Wars. Obviously, this is partly because it's not over yet, even if President Obama declares it so. And there's good evidence that "Operation Iraqi Freedom" made a lot of things worse. I won't get into the fact that the war was started under false pretenses--or rather, outright lies--and that it was one of the most divisive factors over the last two presidencies, inside and outside the US. The war in Iraq is officially ending, after seven years. That's all there really is to say.