Is it finally over?

President Obama announced today that all U.S. forces would be out of Iraq by the end of the year, more or less as planned since President Bush first negotiated a staged withdrawal with the Iraqi government before he left office. Last-minute negotiations to maintain a so-called training force in Iraq came to nothing, thankfully. I'm imagining the huge American embassy and its massive staff, not to mention thousands of armed mercenaries, er, "contractors," will of course remain.

The uncountable tens of thousands of Iraqis killed by the absolutely unprovoked American aggression could not be reached for comment; nor could the equally uncountable thousands more killed by the terrorism and civil conflict unleashed when the U.S. invasion destroyed Iraqi society. The thousands of children who died of hardship in the decade of U.S. blockade between the first and second wars with Iraq will still not be growing up.

George Bush's legacy is intact: no WMD nor links to 9/11 were ever found. But we knew that.

OK, now about Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Uganda...?

(The photo shows a portion of President Bush's disgustingly named "shock and awe" bombing of downtown Baghdad)