The war in Iraq is officially over. But did anyone notice, really? The last troops [except for the ones that are staying and the 5,000 mercenaries<\/a>\u2014oops, I mean contractors] are on their way home. President Obama welcomed them and thanked them. And that\u2019s it?<\/p>\n Of course, there was no dancing in the streets, no victory parades, no flashy photos of sailors kissing nurses in Times Square. Why would there be? No one is proud of what the U.S. did in\u2014or should we say \u201cto\u201d\u2014Iraq. No valid mission has been accomplished. There\u2019s no victory and nothing to celebrate. It\u2019s just, sort of, over. Poof.<\/p>\n At least when the last U.S. combat troops finally left Viet Nam in 1975<\/a>, the long overdue, ignominious ending was a media event: For those of us old enough to remember, it\u2019s hard to forget the images of desperate Vietnamese citizens rushing the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon and clinging to the skids of helicopters airlifting out the last few Americans. Those scenes were ugly and uncomfortable\u2014a fitting visual punctuation to the ugly war they symbolized.<\/p>\n What a contrast with our last days in Iraq. Surely, given the absence of coverage and analysis of the U.S. exit from Iraq and the deafening silence in Congress, Dick Cheney and the neo-cons who ginned up this so-called war must be chortling and high-fiving, realizing that they got away with one of the biggest military con games in American history.<\/p>\n In the run-up to this bogus \u201cwar,\u201d there was at least some debate and analysis. [An outspoken, courageous Illinois State Senator Barack Obama\u2014remember that guy?\u2014was an early critic, and his skepticism launched his ascent toward the Presidency.] But most of what opposition there was [to their credit, 23 U.S. Senators voted against the invasion<\/a>] became overwhelmed by a sustained propaganda campaign to whip up support for a war that had been looking for an excuse since neo-conservatives hatched \u201cThe Project for A New American Century\u201d<\/a> plan in 1998. Those of us who protested [as I did, on a bridge in central Florida, where I was one of about 20 peace activists in a crowd of at least 400 war supporters] were told that we were unpatriotic. It wasn\u2019t a very productive debate, but at least we were confronting the issue.<\/p>\n Now, at the other end of this thing, media coverage and meaningful analysis are hard to find.<\/p>\n When the invasion of Iraq began, CNN and every other American media outlet couldn\u2019t wait to get on board a troop transport, ride along in a tank and breathlessly document the operation. Admittedly, there wasn\u2019t much critical thinking going on then, either\u2014just a mostly blind acceptance of the Bush Administration\u2019s [false] assertion that Saddam Hussein had \u201cweapons of mass destruction,\u201d and that Iraq was a player in the September 11 attacks.<\/p>\n