Iraq War 6 Years Later

Six years after the first bombs fell on Baghdad on March 19, 2003, the United States still finds itself enmeshed in Iraqi violence and politics. More than 4,000 US deaths and countless (and uncounted) thousands of Iraqi deaths later, billions of dollars spent and political capital lost, the US may finally be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

(Estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths range from 150,000 to over a million. The US has refused to keep count.)

Maybe. If the shaky peace holds, Obama's plan and the SOFA are implemented, we could find ourselves militarily disengaged by 2010. However, the cost in lives, finances and political support are incalculable.

While the removal of a brutal dictator cannot be mourned as a loss, can we say that it has been worth it? For us, the American people? Most importantly, can the Iraqis say it has been worth it?

The Iraqis have paid the highest price: deaths in the hundreds of thousands, massive internal displacement and international refugee movements on the order of 4.7 million, and "failed state" status second only to Sudan and ahead of Somalia, according to Foreign Policy's 2007 Failed State Index. (In 2008, Iraq was ranked 5th.)

For those of us who had a pretty good idea before this whole thing started six years ago that Saddam was not a serious threat to the US, there is no satisfaction in saying "I told you so."