Edwin Starr asked the question, “War: what is it good for?” The musical response was “absolutely nothing”. The song was written while the Viet Nam war raged and the next question could be “War: what have we learned?”. Unfortunately the musical response would be “absolutely nothing except make sure that the war is fought by volunteers and make sure that only the troops and their families make any sacrifices.

The 5th anniversary of beginning the Iraq War is just about here.

What good things that have happened as the result of the war? The good is listed here in no particular order. Unfortunately the good things listed may be of a transitory nature to be replaced by other even more difficult problems that will need to be resolved as time and circumstances go on.

1) Saddam Hussein is dead and the people in the country that were his enemies may be safer.

2) We are almost metaphysically sure that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

3) Rightly or wrongly some people believe that establishing fronts against Al Queda in Iraq have lessened the threat to people in the United States.

4) There have been no additional scud missile attacks on Israel from Iraq.

5) The United States Military has made great strides in the development of drone airplanes that can keep pilots out of harms way. Military medicine has also made great strides in saving lives that previously would have been lost

6) If you believe in democracy the Shiites who are in the majority have a better chance at ruling the country.

7) We are developing methodologies to counter insurgencies and if you believe the military the strategy is working.

The Kurdish people in the north are safer and have become relatively prosperous.

Unfortunately, President Bush’s pronouncement of “mission accomplished” was premature, wrong and in retrospect could be restated “as precious little accomplished” except for an even more profound involvement in a area of the globe that has been embroiled in continuous conflict for many years.

These conflicts whether Arab/Israeli, Palestinian/Israeli, Israel/Lebanon, Iran/Iraq, Gulf War I and Gulf War II, the continued insurgancy/civil war and now issues related to our occupation of Iraq the overall problems seem to be as intractable as ever and our presence in Iraq will continue for the seeable future and maybe longer.

Preemptive war: what is good for? It is no wonder that the American voter wants change.