Iraq: Five Years and Counting

Children are a daily reminder of time passing.

When our country began its ill-advised invasion of Iraq, my child was a first grader, still struggling to learn to read.

It’s been five years.

She’s now earning high marks in middle school, where she just concluded a study of ancient civilizations (including Babylon).

And while she’s been busy growing, other families are grieving. Nearly 4,000 US fatalities to date; over 29,000 wounded.

Four years ago, I enrolled my daughter in a gymnastics class. Since that time, she’s moved up to USAG Level 6, and has accumulated dozens of first place medals and trophies.

During that time, the tab for the war (which former  Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld promised would cost no more than $60 billion, and would be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues) has run up to astronomical sums.

According to a new book by Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, by the time we finally get out of Iraq, the war will have cost us $3 TRILLION. And they say, that $3 trillion figure “in all likelihood errs on the low side.”

A little over five years ago, I didn’t believe our government would be so stupid to invade Iraq without good reason – or an exit strategy. I didn’t think we would divert our resources before we’d finished the job of eliminating the Taliban and reconstructing Afghanistan. I didn’t think that our system of checks and balances would allow this mess to happen.

I believed that the Administration would make good use of the expertise of Secretary of State Colin Powell. I actually thought the Administration’s war rumblings were a ruse; a tactic to force Saddam Hussein to let the UN inspectors return and do their job.

So I’ve grown a lot in the last five years, too. I’ve grown more cynical. And I’ve grown angry.

In five more years, my daughter will be a senior in high school. I pray by that time, our involvement in Iraq will be a thing of the past.

Donna Schwartz Mills also writes at SoCal Mom.