The Beginning of the End for US Troops in Iraq

President Barack Obama announced today that the U.S. will end its “combat mission” in Iraq on August 31, which marks the end of a war declared by Washington, on the infamous lie that sought to dismantle an arsenal of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was said to have amassed. Although Obama referred to the withdrawal of combat troops at the end of this month, he said that about 50,000 soldiers would remain to train Iraqi security forces. Therefore, the military intervention that began in March 2003 will remain at least until next year.

The president has instructed the Pentagon to maintain a low-intensity war to provide more room for diplomatic efforts that create the conditions for a complete withdrawal by 2011. Even so, the end of combat operations in Iraq, announced by Obama during a speech to war veterans in Georgia, is a sign of relief that the affected people welcome with pleasure. For centuries to come, the United States and its allies will bear the ignominy of undertaking a military invasion on the territories of ancient Persia, the cradle of human civilization, without valid cause. Through it all, the imperial soldiers found neither nuclear weapons, nor evidence that President Hussein would have encouraged international terrorism.

The war in Iraq has cost the U.S. more than $845 billion, and the economy of that nation $3-5 trillion. The Lancet, a British medical journal, estimates a civilian death toll of 655,000 during the seven years of military intervention in Iraq. The reasons behind this crime against humanity seem to be related to the fact that the subsoil and sea area of the nation retain 65 percent of global oil reserves. President Obama, to whom the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, would vindicate that award, if he would order the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops who usurp Iraqi territory, although it is fair to note that things seem to be going well.