A day that will live in. . . .

Anyone not living in a cave knows that today marks the official end of American combat operations in Iraq. In fact, the last of the designated combat troops left last week. According to journalist Richard Engle, who accompanied them, they were greeted by exactly two American soldiers, who saluted them as they crossed over the border into Kuwait. Of course, 50,000 troops still remain indefinitely, and five of them have already been killed by rocket attacks and roadside bombs, but never mind.

President Obama is giving a speech today to mark the occasion. He’ll express gratitude to the troops, point out that he met his promised deadline concerning the withdrawl, and express concern about Iraq’s future, like for example how it doesn’t actually have a government right now. But he’ll be optimistic for the long-term.

What I’d like to see, though, are some speeches by the original architects of the war. The only one still on the scene and mouthing off from time to time about how soft Obama is on terrorism is Dick Cheney. I wonder if Dick will have any words to say about how the war turned out, whether he had it right when he declared many years ago that the evidence for Sadam’s weapons of mass destruction was a slam dunk, or that the insurgency was in its last throes.

We should line them up like in a high-school speech contest and demand a ten-minute address: Dick Cheney, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Paul Bremmer. And from the lesser luminaries from the Project for a New American Century, now defunct, all of whom later became members of the Bush administration: Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Richard Armitage, and Elliott Abrams.

We should demand an apology.

But count on it: We won’t hear a peep from any of them with the possible exception of Cheney, who will comment that Obama has made America less safe.

Credit, however, goes out to columnist Anne Applebaum, who wrote today, “I supported the invasion of Iraq, I think the surge was a success and I believe that an Iraqi democracy could be a revolutionary force for good in the Middle East. Yet even if violence abates, even if all American troops go home, we have still paid a very high price for our victory -- much higher than we usually admit.”

Never mind the word “victory,” she acknowledges that things didn’t go so well in Iraq. Here’s a look at her list of unintended consequences. Briefly, we seriously damaged:

“America's reputation for effectiveness.

“America's ability to organize a coalition.

“America's ability to influence the Middle East.

“America's ability to think like a global power.

And finally,

“America's ability to care for its wounded veterans.”

She expands nicely on each of these. She fails, though, to mention that the two major premises supporting the invasion in the first place turned out to be errors at best, outright lies at worst: That Sadam had WMD that threatened his neighbors and the United States, and that Sadam had ties to Al-Qaeda.

And she missed a few consequences: The invasion of Iraq destroyed any hope of a favorable outcome in Afghanistan, which seemed within reach when we turned our backs on that conflict, and it led most of the Muslim world to believe that the United States is at war with Islam. These two outcomes will haunt us for the next generation and more.

Bummer.

Anyway, even if we didn’t yet see all of the outcomes, millions of us Americans knew that the invasion was a terrible idea and no good would come of it. We said so at the time, some with more evidence and authority, some with less.

We were roundly criticized for it. We were all but called traitors.

And so, on behalf of all of us, as the Mission Accomplished banner, now badly tattered, goes back up, I’d like to humbly say,

I told you so.

Post parto

Spanish class is over for the summer. I was still enjoying class and working very nearly full-time-squared up to Tuesday, when I bailed out after our instructor’s fifth absence. I had only a brief oral presentation on Wednesday and the final exam on Thursday, and since I’m auditing the class, there was no reason to stick around to earn the points.

Despite the poor showing from the instructor when he showed at all, I count the class a terrific success and would sign up for another this fall if one were available.
The instructor was a likeable guy and generally used class time well, but he’s the worst deadbeat I’ve ever had as a teacher, and in the end I was mostly fed up with him.

Despite all the problems with him (a long list of which I just deleted because who really cares?), I loved the class and made a huge amount of progress, though I still consider myself a beginner in Spanish.

I’m signed up for a Spanish lit class this fall, which meets two days a week, so I’ll commute the seventy miles one-way instead of living over there. I’m also probably going to volunteer in a local school working with ELL students (“ELL” meaning English Language Learners and replacing all prior acronyms). For now, there’s plenty of work to be done around the house after being gone for so long, and after a few days of mental rest, I’ll get back to studying two or three hours a day, my goal to continue to make a little progress and not immediately forget everything I’ve learned.

It’s good to be back home, although I’m having a little trouble adjusting to the change of pace that comes with not having something I absolutely must be doing right this minute. That might be a drain after awhile (and it is), but it’s also a form of structure. Take it away too quickly and one feels a little adrift. At the moment, I’m somewhat adrifting but should adjust to things fairly quickly.