You know, that war we fought for 5 or 6 years? That place where Democracy was going to take root and be this great example for the rest of the arab world? That place where we spent billions to “reconstruct” the country? Well, guess what, it’s still a place where the children are dying for lack of medical care:

Unfortunately for Iraqis, their doctors are still leaving the country because so many of them have been kidnapped, or assassinated or both. Medicines are another problem, as the video shows. Much of what the US has spent on rebuilding education has been swallowed up in corruption. Many of the young people whose blogs I still try to read have also left the country. The brain drain certainly will do the country no good for the future. Those who have been displaced inside Iraq by all the fighting may have the hardest time:

Few in this country seem to care any more what may happen in Iraq after US troops pull out (if they do). Many Iraqis have said they want the troops to stay, but Prime Minister Maliki owes his place to the Sadrists, and their leader, Moktada al-Sadr,  is adamant that the US must leave as promised.  Allowing our military involvement to drag on indefinitely doesn’t seem to be very popular here, either.  What the two countries may agree on is some sort of “training” mission that allows for many US forces to stay, and there are the ubiquitous “contractors” draining the budgets of both countries.

Our US military will not want to leave.  They never do once they’ve been sent somewhere as Obama is discovering about Afghanistan.  So we can probably expect that reports of more deaths from IED attacks in Iraq will continue, and the country will remain rather chaotic for the foreseeable future.  Our soldiers are both a help and a hindrance as we prop up a government that does not have the confidence of all the Iraqi people.  And if that also sounds familiar, it’s because we keep following the same patterns of actions no matter where or when we go to war in a far away place.  We say we want stability, but that’s not what our actions accomplish.