Bloody and expensive battle in Iraq has been officially declared over after almost 9 years December 15 2012

Iraqi soldiers attend a training session with US troops

The bloody and expensive battle in Iraq that stated on March 20, 2003 has been officially declared over after almost 9 years. The shut down was observed with a simple December 15 flag ceremony at the Baghdad International Airport, as the American troops head back home.

President Barack Obama, in his final speech to the American troops, which were originally scheduled to leave Iraq in 2008, said that their efforts were not wasted and that the war was for a cause that is now successfully accomplished. He said the American troops are leaving Iraq with the belief that it’s now a sovereign, stable and self reliant state. Surprisingly though, his yesterday’s statement sharply contrasted with the statements of the same Barack Obama who was an Illinois State senator in 2002. The one who believed that the soon to begin invasion in the name of war on terror was simple “a dumb war, a rash war”, which is based “not on reason, but on passion, not on principal but on passion”.

The price paid by both countries on a misguided enterprise was far more than anyone could have anticipated. Not only in term of the money poured into the war but the lives lost as well. 4500 U.S. soldiers died and another 32000 wounded, with 100,000 Iraqis killed. But wait, these are only estimates. According to some sources the figures are almost 5 times as high. In terms of money the war cost $800 billion from the U.S treasury.

Beltran, a U.S soldier who suffered serious injuries after his plane crashed in 2003, doesn’t believe that this war was to search for alleged connections to weapons of mass destruction or the 9/11. "The national interest is the oil so that's the reason why we're there," Beltran said.

"The oil companies are the only ones that are gaining anything from this. When I first went over there, I knew the interest was oil. In the Army, we knew that. I was naive to think that would keep the price of oil low. How much has it gone up in the past couple of years, and it's only going to grow."

There’s no guarantee that after the last of American soldiers leave Iraq by the end of 2011, there wont be any more civil wars between shia and sunni Muslims or that Iraq might find itself get caught into a new turmoil by the instability in its neighboring countries like Syria and Iran.

But no matter how failed and mistaken the 9 year mission was, the U.S. officials continue to boost it as a “responsible ending, under the leadership of President Brarack Obama”.