This week President Obama announced an end to combat operations in Iraq. Seven long years after President Bush declared pre-emptive war on Iraq, most of our soldiers were finally heading home or to Afghanistan. There’s been a lot of discussion this week about the meaning of this war, did we achieve “victory?” Should former President Bush be given credit for the success of the surge? I fear that we have learned very little from this costly and unnecessary war. The lessons that we should have had burned into our collective consciousness; the desperate need for a free and fair media that allows for a full throated debate over the need to go to war with opposing voices given equal time, the absolute necessity to reinstate a draft and a war tax as stipulations prior to a declaration of war-aren’t even discussed. Instead conservatives want to declare victory and allies like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair remain unrepentant, confident that the need to topple Saddam Hussein was a just cause. I’ve heard very little discussion in the main stream media about the human and financial price tag for this war. Here’s a sampling; 4,416 U.S. causalities, an estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed, 3 million Iraqi’s displaced from their homes, nearly 35,000 U.S. soldiers wounded, $ 750 billion in direct war costs. This was the first time in the history of our country that we waged war without increasing taxes to pay for it. There are also secondary effects like the lowering of the United State’s stature in the world by embarking on pre-emptive war and the hardening of hate by Muslims who feel persecuted and victimized by U.S. policies.