September 1, 2010

 
 
     The President, who is good with words, never uses ones like "victory" or "win" in his statement about U.S.
combat troops leaving Iraq because, of course, it wasn't a victory. We didn't win.  We spent almost a trillion dollars there.  More than 4400 Americans died there.  But we surely didn't win.
 
      Where does our departure leave the Iraqis?  I don't know or, honestly, much care.
 
      When we arrived, we overthrew a dictator, Saddam Hussein.  We leave with the country run by an unelected man named Nouri al-Maliki.  They had an election last March but they never seem to have figured out who won.
 
     Maybe the modern world doesn't have
neat wars with winners and losers.  We still have two Koreas, so I don't know who won that one.  The North won Vietnam, but we get along with them nowadays, exchange ambassadors and all that.
 
     So I don't know what lies ahead for Iraq.  A peaceful end to one of our two wars is a good new thing in our life.  Iraq?  I think I'll just say what Ed Murrow used to say at the end of his evening newscast:  Good night and good luck.