Curtain falls on the bloody debacle in Iraq

SO, after almost a decade during which the US covered itself in disgrace with their misconceived and mishandled war in Iraq, the curtain has finally fallen on this long-running, blood-soaked farce.

At a homecoming ceremony for surviving US troops, President Barack Obama declared the Iraq escapade officially over, calling the moment “historic” and labelling their efforts there “an extraordinary achievement”. What of the thousands of their compatriots who returned maimed or in wooden boxes or not at all?

Obama unashamedly referred to the “success” of a war he labelled “dumb” while he was a Senator in 2002. If the removal of a dictator that previous US administrations once directly supplied with armaments and a subsequent eight years of chaos can be described as a “success” I’d be interested to hear his benchmark for failure.

An estimated $1 trillion spent for what end? An astronomical amount of wasted money for a misadventure that will forever define George W Bush’s failed presidency.

Iraq itself is still a very divided country where regular attacks and sabotage of both US forces and the Iraqi government itself by insurgents, sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite forces, and abuses of human rights have been the hallmarks of the last few bloody years.

Indeed, Mr President, “an extraordinary achievement“.

JD Mangan

Stillorgan Rd

Stillorgan

Co Dublin