Afghanistan started in October of 2001

I missed the victory parade.

Total US troop deaths in Iraq for 2012: 1. (February 2012)
Total US troop deaths in Iraq for 2013: 0

What is the current force deployment of US troops in Iraq?

There's a lot one could bust Obama on, to be sure, but drawing down to almost zero the war in Iraq doesn't seem to be one of them.

Last I heard , Iraqis were people too.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/341354/at-least-50-dead-171-wounded-in-iraq-violence

It's certainly the case that the war we set off continues to produce horrendous consequences. That said, it seems a stretch to say that it is ongoing *for us.*

For the United States, the Iraq War is essentially over. For the Iraqis, it is, of course, a force that continues to destroy lives.

I think, moreover, that we can discuss things without the imputation that one or the other of us doesn't recognize or value human life, as your post seems to suggest sarcastically about me.

It was not a war on Iraq...it was a global war on terror so we were told.
Was the war over when we defeated Germany?

Orwell was right...the war is not intended to be won.

The OP says ten years. Ten fucking years, in fact. That number can only possibly refer to the Iraq War, which was began ten years ago tomorrow (March 20, 2003). No other element of a global war on terror would be relevant to the TEN YEAR number explicitly invoked by the OP. Three times, including in the title. That would only seem to refer to Iraq.

Now, if I'm incorrect about that, and it was just some coincidence that the OP is titled "10 fucking years," and keeps repeating "ten fucking years" and it just happens to be ten years tomorrow since the War in Iraq began, fair enough. The ten years would seem to refer to Iraq alone, as other posters have mentioned (it can't refer to 9/11 or Afghanistan, both of which are nearing the 12 year mark), and it would be weird to simply make a mistake on the tenth anniversary, so I guess I figured this was a post about Iraq in particular.

But I am far more forgiving of those technical points than most...cause the jest of it is right on.

must flow!

He who controls the Spice, controls the Universe!

...initially, in the days following 9/11, I would submit a vast majority of Americans favored the U.S. actions in Afghanistan...especially the use of special forces rather than a wholescale invasion. The hopes were this incursion would get bin Laden and clear out the "terrerists"...getting rid of the Taliban was a byproduct. Unfortunately, as was the case for all his 8 sordid years, this action was mismanaged and turned into a "profit making" opportunity. Those who railed during the Clinton years about "nation building" were all of a sudden gung-ho in redrawing the map...Iraq then Iran and Syria and so on. Afghanistan was supposedly "pacified" and fell off the front pages.

While Iraq quickly fell into general disfavor, Afghanistan was a "lost war" that was still "popular" as bin Laden was still on the loose. By the time President Obama was elected, the military was dug in real deep in both countries. It's always been easy to start a war...not so easy to end one...and I'm sure the President didn't realize how tough a task this was going to be. In the end these invasions will be a push...a sad footnote in the attempts of the U.S. to play empire with a cost in prestige, blood and treasure.

While the stench of Iraq will remain for the rest of the lives of those who lived through these times (not unlike Vietnam of my generation), Afghanistan is viewed in a different light...a far more "noble" cause but one that got us bogged down in an ongoing civil war we little understand and will have any real affect on the outcome. I'm grateful troops are on the way home...wish they could get back sooner...

I speak of the 29 Senate DEMS who voted for IWR ( a *majority* of DEMS and a majority of whom are likely STILL THERE).

The House was better but there were still a lot ( 80 or so) who sold out humanity.

Those who plead ignorance should be publicly horsewhipped. If *I* knew enough about it to be on the STREET opposing the build-up and the authorization , then the 29 DEM Senators knew enough.

That group of 29 in particular is an everlasting shame and blot on the country and on this party.

ten FUCKING years

~PEACE~

naked, bloody, profit for the war industry.

We should indeed be ashamed. We should also be ashamed the we haven't strung Richard B. Cheney up by the neck in The Hague. And the bastards says he made no mistakes, he would do it all again. (I have no doubt he made million$$ off that war.) .

Saddam is dead, OBL is dead and I don't even think they say what the mission is now (?)

It's common with empires. As is the ending of this sad story.

WE actually did and are doing the right things. Even while repeatedly being ignored and over-ruled.

The national leaders are simply stuck in trying to salvage something of value from the sunk costs of lost lives, spent treasure, and lost morality.

Nations tend to do this quite a lot...forced by gravity of multiple problems into bad positions.

Not surprisingly, the nation fell into a 'stable node' within the matrix of socio-economic complexities. Consequently, in all directions departure from this position faces forces working against it.

It'll take real serious counter-force investment to overcome the local barriers that contain us, but the focus is on austerity.

will be.

For example, in Vietnam, a "win" was supposed to be that the Vietnamese renounced Communism and embraced democracy. One of the many reasons we lost to North Vietnam was because North Vietnam was, for all practical purposes, a democracy already. They had the leader they wanted: Ho Chi Minh. Another reason is because the country we were ostensibly fighting for, South Vietnam, wasn't a democracy at all, but a military dictatorship, with elections routinely rigged by the US. Finally, North Vietnam was really Communist in name only. Then, as now, everywhere you go in Vietnam, people are busy buying and selling all sorts of goods; capitalism in action.

The reasons we were trying to "win" in Vietnam never existed in actual fact.

Jus tthe same as the MWD's didn't exist anywhere but in the imaginations of the people who stood to benefit from the Iraq War, either financially or politically.

We no longer fight wars for moral reasons, but political and financial ones. That's no way to "win"......anything...