Iraq War Reflections

A soldier with A Company 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, walks through the desert near Karbala in central Iraq in 2003. (AP)

A soldier with A Company 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry Regiment walks through the desert near Karbala in central Iraq in 2003. (AP)

As the Iraq War comes to a close, what do you think our legacy there will be? Has your view of the war evolved over the last nearly nine years? Tell us here or on our Facebook page, or Tweet us your thoughts with the hashtag #iraqwarreflections.

Here & Now: A Marine Reflects On The Iraq War’s End

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Anonymous

Yet again another shamful episode of American Imperialism. A lot ventured, in fact far far too much ventured, and nothing gained.
Pure and simple, the honor of our dead and wounded service people, has been co-opted solely for the legitimization and benefit of the Military Industrial Complex.
There have been many stories of where that money would have been better spent. Many more people would have benefitted, and our country would have been just as secure.

All of it, the lies, the marketing, the manipulation, and the ineptness of execution has served no purpose other than the enoblement of the military above those they presume to serve.

Not one, not a single military death is more honorable than any one of the civilians in the US that gave their lives, doing their jobs, serving their country.
- PF
  
  Nor are US deaths somehow more honorable than the over 1 million Iraqi civilians killed by US attacks and US policies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORB_survey_of_Iraq_War_casualties). I’ll remember this war as the one NPR supported wholeheartedly (remember the NPR “journalists” embedded with the invasion?). Just can’t beat NPR: http://nprcheck.blogspot.com/search/label/warnography
  - Hughmac312
    
    you are absolutely correct, i don’t usually leave out the civilians of the countries we destroy
    we also have the blood of 2 million Vietnamese on our hands, along with many others
Sandysdharma

Hughmac & PF, I totally agree. This country hasn’t learned a bloody thing since the VN war. Hubris squared. The MSM, along with NPR, jumps on the bandwagon every time some third-rate chickenhawk team like GWB, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, thieves & liars all, pumps up a war. And in the entire military not one officer has the guts to call BS on them even when they know better. And somehow they continue to con thousands of uninformed, naive boys & girls into signing up to go get traumatized and cause trauma to innocents around the world. Of course the enlistment is aided and abetted by all the oh-so-respectful (worshipful, actually) tone of the reporting – including NPR.
Sandysdharma

I have great empathy for the families of those who got killed after going to war believing they were ‘protecting our freedoms.’ They cling to any shred of justification for the loss of their loved one as a lifeline; they need to avoid confronting the truth that ‘we’ invaded another nations illegally, wreaked tremendous havoc, death & destruction upon their people…and somehow ‘we’ need to find a way to make that all a glorious sacrifice: “Dulce et decorum est, pro patria morde.” Read Wilfred Owen’s WWI poem of the same title, and you’ll see that nothing has changed. Not a damn thing.
imnokuffar

The legacy will come to nothing because Muslims are incapable of any sort of democracy.

I feel really sorry for all the troops that have been killed and maimed for nothing more than an illusion.

Get rid of that creep Osama (Obama) and elect a real patriot like Allen West.

God save the Queen !

Long live America !
- Heaviest Cat
  
  Imno, you’re joking, right?
  - imnokuffar
    
    About what exactly ?