“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.”
- George Bernard Shaw

The night of March 19, 2003, U.S. forces received reports that Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein was visiting his sons, Uday and Qusay Hussein, at Dora Farms, within the al-Dora farming community on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Four satellite-guided, 2,000-pound “Bunker Busters” and 40 missiles were dropped on the compound. Saddam was not present, nor were any Iraqi leadership or Hussein family members. The attack resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians.

That evening marked the beginning of a military invasion of Iraq which President George W. Bush said was “to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.”

Five years later, there is no doubt that the Iraq misadventure was the work of contemptible and clueless men, and that the end is nowhere in sight.

Seemingly willful ignorance of Iraqi and Islamic realities on the part of Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld were aided by Congress, which did not heed the undeniable fact that presidents can lie (up to 935 times, in fact).

Of course, all of us bear some measure of complicity.

An overwhelming number of voters dislike preemptive wars, and now want the troops out of Iraq, but don’t know what the best exit strategy would be.

The result is apathy, which is a critical step in allowing a nation to have the wool pulled over its collective eyes, year after year, by manipulative hacks.

How many more deaths and trillions of dollars wasted in Iraq will it take for the public to say enough? With such opposition, how does this go on?

Most Iraq-Vietnam comparisons are too sweeping and broad, but here in 2008, the state of political discourse has devolved to early 1970s levels.

Upon suspending his White House bid, Mitt Romney made an unbelievable statement that he was dropping out GOP race to benefit us all:

“In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” the former Massachusetts Governor said.

This crap is what we’ve boiled down to. Keep fighting a meaningless war waged on hubris and false pretenses or else … you’re a terrorist!

Putting a stop to such bastardized attitudes will be an uphill climb, but unless we wish to resign ourselves to 100 years more of the same, it is our duty.

We can start by electing Barack Obama President of the United States, but we must also do more to express our dissatisfaction with the war on local levels.

Elected officials in all capacities need to know, in no uncertain terms, that we want this unmitigated disaster over with. The sooner the occupation ends, the sooner we can move forward and repair this country, both domestically and abroad.