U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over - We Lost...to OPEC

America spent nearly $1 Trillion and lost over 4,000 Servicemen while oil dictators win it all

By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL

The United States military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq today with a symbolic flag lowering ceremony in Baghdad.

Once again, the United States Military performed brilliantly and heroically, confirming that we have the best trained and most effective large military force in the world. Remember, when our men and women first took the field against Iraq in January 1991, there were great fears and much conjecture about how difficult the fight would be against the Iraqi army and its vaunted Republican Guard – the Iraqi Army was said to be the fourth largest in the world.

It was a virtual cakewalk. It wasn’t even close. Our military people did everything, and more, that had been expected and hoped for. Unfortunately, our political leaders didn’t do as complete of a job and pretty much left things as they were before Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

In March 2003, our people went back to Iraq, presumably to finish the job and finally remove Saddam Hussein from power. Energized by the September 11th events of a year and a half earlier, there was great national resolve and Hussein was eventually captured, tried by an Iraqi court, and executed.

Unfortunately, our political leaders once again blew it. We won the battles, but we lost the war.

As I’ve stated many times in the past, I am not a war prude. I have no problem with going to war and using the fantastic weapons that our defense contractors have created. But what I abhor is fighting a meaningless war and letting victory slip away.

So who won the war? Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, Libya, Venezuela, Russia… basically all the oil producing nations that are enemies of our country. Heck, it could even be said that China was a victor in the war because they never had to spend one dollar or lose one serviceman in the effort to keep oil flowing into their economy.

What do we have to show for our efforts in Iraq? Between the two Iraq wars we spent well over a trillion dollars; had a few thousand soldiers killed with another almost 40,000 wounded; and have had our retail gasoline prices more than double compared to pre-Desert Storm levels.

As gung-ho as I personally am to kick-ass around the world, I came to realize that we had no business rushing off to defend Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the early ‘90s. We did it for one reason and one reason only: Oil, specifically the treaty the U.S. has to protect the Saudi “royal” family.

We weren’t defending democracy since the only country in the entire Middle East that is a democracy has no oil. We weren’t even coming to the aid of individuals suffering at the hands of Saddam Hussein – in fact, once the Iraqi Army was out of Kuwait our leaders allowed Hussein to go back to killing Iraqi citizens. And we sure as hell didn’t do it to keep gasoline available and prices cheap.

We are in the same position we were in before March 2003 and January 1991: We are enslaved to oil produced by countries and regimes that are our enemy. Millions, perhaps billions of dollars continue to flow every year from these enemies into the hands of terrorists. We pay far too much for gasoline and diesel fuel. And we are constantly in fear of the oil supply being cut off.

We, the common people of America, lost. The un-common people of America – that is to say, our elected officials who think of themselves as royalty and who accept bribes of all types from oil lobbyists – fared much better. They are winners, alongside Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, Ayatollah Khamenei, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

So hooray for our military, three cheers and much thanks to our servicemen and women, and a great big fat middle finger and Bronx cheer to all those who duped us into believing that these oil wars were somehow the noble thing to do.

• SEE ALSO: Our 'Opium War' with Gasoline