Amidst anti-war protests including those mounted in Miami, calls for a troop withdrawal from Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and President George Bush’s intention to stay the course, the nation reflected on March 19, 2003 when the United States declared war on Iraq.

The premise: the Saddam Hussein led government was harboring weapons of mass destruction, and posed a threat to the United States in light of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks – a claim that soon proved wrong. Bush and his then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld assured Americans and the world of a short war without significant bloodshed.

Now, five years later the war continues, without any signs of an end and almost 4,000 American soldiers have been killed and thousands more injured. In addition, tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens and soldiers have been killed, 4 million displaced and their lives left in disarray. And, while American economists scramble to find reasons why the American economy is facing a massive recession, the U.S. government is spending $300 million a day on the war, an amount that could reach an alarming total of $650 billion later this year.

Floridian servicemen and servicewomen are among the thousands of Americans killed in Iraq.

When the war started, national opinion polls indicated that Americans were strongly in favor, although polls among South Florida’s Black community showed that a slight majority was against it. Public opinion remained more or less favorable up to and shortly after Saddam Hussein was toppled from power and he and members of his regime imprisoned. However, as Iraqi insurgents (soldiers and citizens) violently resisted the American incursion into that country, resulting in daily reports of American casualties, public opinion badly waned, especially as there was absolutely no evidence of the existence of weapons of mass destruction. This negative public opinion crested to incense voters to vote Republicans out of the U.S. Congress in general elections held in 2004, and has kept President Bush’s approval rating at record lows. Yet, despite the increasingly negative public opinion, adverse election results and the advice of highly qualified, experienced and respected American statesmen and women, Bush escalated the war in 2007.

Although the casualty among American troops and Iraqi citizens had declined since the escalation of troops to the region, in recent weeks some 17 troop members have been killed along with dozens of Iraqi civilians in a series of suicide bombings.

Moreover, despite the surge of American troops to the region to restore security and order, Iraqi citizens still lack basic utilities like electricity and running water, telephones hardly work, food supply is short, garbage is uncollected; schools lack trained teachers and hospitals, competent medical personnel.

Reports earlier this month indicated that after a comprehensive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents captured during the U.S. invasion in 2003, no evidence was found that the Saddam Hussein regime was in anyway linked to al Qaeda the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks on America.

But, despite this review and the indications that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney on a recent trip to Baghdad defended the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as part of the struggle against terrorism, following al Qaeda’s attack on America. Addressing American soldiers in Baghdad Cheney said, “This long-term struggle became urgent on the morning of September 11, 2001. That day we clearly saw that dangers can gather far from our own shores and find us right there at home. So the United States made a decision to hunt down the evil of terrorism and kill it where it grows.” Cheney continued that, understanding all the dangers of the era of terrorism American has “no intention of abandoning our friends or allowing this country (Iraq) of 170,000 square miles to become the staging area for further attacks against Americans.”

The current Republican Administration and the Republican presidential nominee for the November presidential election, John McCain have repeated often that there is no short-term intention to pull American troops out of Iraq. On the other hand, both Democratic contenders for that party’s nomination have stated emphatically that if either of them is elected president he or she will immediately begin to withdraw troops and seek to end the war.

However, an end to the war is not expected immediately restore normalcy and peace to the lives of the citizens of Iraq.