The War is Over, Long Live the War

When World War II ended many people heard the news by way of the sound of cars honking and people cheering. Today the US officially ended its war in Iraq, mostly to the sound of silence. It was a war that began on false assumptions, a war that was expected to last only weeks at the most. Now almost ten years later it is over and it goes out with a whimper, not a bang.

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

From the poem The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

                                                                    REUTERS

US soldiers at the former U.S. Sather Air Base near Baghdad prepare before the start of a ceremony marking the end of US military engagement in Iraq, with the last American troops withdrawing nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

"No words, no ceremony, can provide full tribute to the sacrifices that brought this day to pass."
                              - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

You can read the full New York Post story here - US ends its war in Iraq