None of the other “turning points” in the conflict have led to any real improvements on the ground. They have all been followed by more unnecessary deaths.

However, the dying has long passed the point of diminishing returns both for the Iraqis and the American public. That being the case, the escalating political costs, both in terms of lessened support for the failed ventured here, and an expanding and intensifying Iraqi resistance, call for hastening the inevitable withdrawal of American forces. That is the least we could do after so shamelessly imposing the current hell on the Iraqi people.

We shamelessly supported Saddam when he was crushing any semblance of political opposition. We shamelessly turned a blind eye as he invaded Iran and proceeded to burn the Iranian province of Khuzestan to the ground. We shamelessly ignored the scud rockets raining down on the innocent civilians of Dezful, Susangard, Abadan, Bostan, and other Iranian cities.

We shamelessly said nothing, in fact we increased our diplomatic presence in Baghdad after Saddam committed the very atrocities he was recently tried and hanged for. We shamelessly facilitated Saddam’s weapons program by providing billions of dollars in agricultural credits, freeing up money to help him procure weapons of mass destruction.

We shamelessly watched as Saddam used banned chemical weapons against the Kurds. We shamelessly punished the innocent victims of Saddam’s brutalities by destroying Iraq’s civilian infrastructure during the 1991 Gulf War, including the sanitation, electrical, and medical systems. We shamelessly encouraged the Shiites and Kurds to rebel against Saddam in the aftermath of that conflict, and then stood by and did nothing as Saddam’s helicopters mowed them down by the thousands.

We shamelessly killed a million Iraqi children, between 1992 and 2003, declaring it the price of containing Saddam, and then proceeded to invade and occupy the country, shamelessly alleging that Saddam had not been contained (in other words, all of those children were killed for absolutely nothing). Finally, we shamelessly justified that invasion on the basis of a pack of lies that fittingly destroyed Colin Powell’s political career.

In light of that sordid history, any discussion that seeks to justify our military involvement in Iraq, or rail against the evil of the “enemy” is an empty academic exercise. There is no evil in Iraq today except that we are implicated its existence.

Similarly, there can be no meaningful discussion in this country of the evil, justice or injustice of war that avoids discussing the obscenity of a $500 billion dollar defense budget, and the political and economic realities governing how that money is spent.