The War In Iraq is Over !

Yep, the War is over, has been for four years. When President Bush stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier, in 2003, and told us the War was over, he was right.

The Iraqi military had been defeated. Saddam Hussein had been overthrown. The War was at an end. That day, the Occupation of Iraq began. We’ve been occupying the country for over four years now, and it hasn’t gone well.

The American military and its troops are equipped and trained for blitzkrieg, not occupation. The war in Granada was a blitzkrieg. So was the war in Panama. During the Kuwait War, the United States swept in and forced out the vaunted Iraqi military in a matter of days. Having met its United Nations mandate, the U.S. pulled out.

Unfortunately, we still have not equipped or trained our military for an occupation. We cannot effectively hold territory and win hearts and minds. Our troops are still great at quick and forceful action, but cannot win hearts and minds. We need to redevelop some of our forces for occupation missions.

To implement a plan in Iraq, it is critical that we call a spade a spade. Words are important. If our Government, military, and the public start to call the operation in Iraq an Occupation, rather than a War, we could finally have an operation in Iraq that makes sense and could finally come to an end.