7 years & 5 months later

On Tuesday President Obama declared an end to the seven-year-and-five-month US combat mission in Iraq.

That lie-ridden, death-dealing adventure of Bush and Cheney (and the rest of the neo-cons) brought about the death of 4,417 US troops (as of Aug. 31.) The official number of wounded is 31,929, but the estimated number is over 100,000.

US-Iraqi government figures say that 70,000 Iraqis have died. That is way, way below the findings of other studies.

Iraqi Body Count -- which counts documented deaths, using resources like hospitals and morgues -- says that between 97,642 and 106,540 Iraqi civilians died. (They reported 501 documented civilian deaths from violence in August.)

By July 2006, the highly-respected medical journal The Lancet estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had already been killed as a result of the invasion. Justforeignpolicy.org continued this study, using Iraq Body Count to measure the rate of increase. They now put the estimated number of Iraqi deaths at 1,366,350.

The financial cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has already gone beyond a trillion dollars, much of that borrowed from other countries.

Now 49,700 U.S. troops remain in Iraq as advisers. They are looking at a political mess. Since the elections in March, there has been no permanent government. Corruption abounds. And Iran is meddling.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, what have you wrought?