V.I. Day

I know I was on vacation and all, but did the war in Iraq just end? Where are the parades? The presidential aircraft carrier landings? Did the last guys out remember to turn off the lights?
Okay. There were plenty of news items about the last units to pull out, but shouldn't there have been something more along the lines of "shock and awe" with which we came busting in all those years ago? Aren't the Iraqis going to miss their liberators?
Enough questions for now. We owe it to ourselves as a nation to take a deep breath and appreciate this pause in the action. Mission accomplished or not, the combat troops have moved out. Of Iraq. There is still plenty of combat to be found, but it won't be in Baghdad for us. There will still be fifty thousand American troops left in Iraq, but their job will be "Operation New Dawn," a far semantic cry from "Desert Storm" or "Airborne Dragon." Fifty thousand men and women hanging around, just in case there is trouble. We're there to help, after all.
My mind goes back to the video images from my youth of the scramble the United States made out of Vietnam. It wasn't proud. It wasn't happy. It was embarrassing. We were done.
It also makes me think of "Monty Python's Life of Brian," as the People's Front of Judea argues about "what have the Romans ever done for us?" After a somewhat exhausting list, one timid fellow suggests: "Brought peace?" To which Reg, their leader, replies, "Brought peace? Oh, shut up!" We shall see.