Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.  ”“ President Barack Obama, Feb. 27, 2009

I was just sitting down to write my column at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 18, my intended subject was the Republican fake-foolishness regarding the Ground Zero Mosque Controversy, when the announcement came that United States combat troops are leaving Iraq. President Obama, as he had done with Health Care, has kept another campaign promise. The majority of troops are leaving Iraq though approximately 50,000 advisors will remain. After 4,400 American deaths and over one million Iraqi civilian deaths suffered for George W. Bush’s Folly, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Barack Obama is bringing combat in Iraq to an end.

But to digress for a moment: The Ground Zero Mosque Controversy is a red herring, another effort by the Republican Party of No to change the political dialogue from meaningful discussion of the economy, jobs, and financial aid to small businesses to dribble regarding, well, nothing important. To begin with, the proposed mosque isn’t at Ground Zero, it’s almost four blocks away, a great distance in Manhattan. Thrice-married, Right-wing Gadfly Newt Gingrich, disgraced former Speaker of the House of Representatives, continued with his absurd comments regarding “a Japanese Memorial at Pearl Harbor” and “a Nazi Tribute next to the Holocaust Museum in D.C.” The man is not to be taken seriously.

Still, since he’s running for the Republican nomination for president, it is important to remember that Newt is an overblown, self-aggrandizing figure who won re-election as a congressman only to quit, à la Sarah Palin. Newt, of course, quit because he had been found guilty of ethics violations pertaining to his book deals and had been fined about $450,000.00, enforceable only as long as he was a member of Congress. The best way for Newt not to pay was to quit, so he did.

For some inexplicable reason, Newt still shows up on television and radio as a commentator. He is colorful but Tea Partiers had best beware: Newt divorced wife number one, his high school teacher whom he married to avoid service in the Vietnam War, while she was in a hospital bed, cancer-stricken. He was already carrying on an affair with soon-to-be wife number two. While married to her and leading the charge against President Clinton’s indiscretions in the late 1990s, he was cheating on number two with his secretary; she is presently wife number three. Then again, Republican Conservatives are not the epitome of morality and virtue, they’re hypocrites. Rush Limbaugh is already working on wife number four.

Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMDs, were never found in Iraq because Saddam Hussein had used the chemical and biological weapons Ronald Reagan supplied him in 1983 on the Iranians during their conflict in the late 1980s. Furthermore, Saddam used whatever was left on the Kurds in 1991 after GHW Bush abandoned them after promising support for their revolt against Saddam; over 300,000 Kurds died because of Papa Bush’s cowardice. Those deaths will weigh heavily on his soul.

After September 11th, Americans were lied to by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. This triumvirate insisted that we could expect nuclear explosions here in the United States if we didn’t invade. The United Nations’ inspectors, however, found no evidence of a nuclear program in Iraq in the run-up to the invasion. The United States invaded anyway with little or no worldwide support. Colin Powell’s Coalition of the Willing consisted of American, British, and Australian troops with a few dozen, total, from other countries.

Over seven years later, our troops are leaving and this is being done under President Obama’s watch. Even though this is a matter of morality and conscience and a political promise, the ramifications cannot be dismissed. Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11th attacks: The 19 highjackers were Saudi Arabian and Egyptian. There were no Iraqis on those four planes nor were any Iraqis involved in the plotting. The Iraq War was clearly George W. Bush’s war of choice.

No one is going to arrest George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for their Crimes Against Humanity. So, at the very least, Bush and Cheney owe the American people a confession and an apology, especially to those families whose sons and daughters died for an unjust cause. Conversely, President Obama should be praised for keeping his word and bringing a beginning-to-the-end of one of the saddest and most shameful periods in American history.

”“ Paul C. Trahan lives in Saco.