Rebranding Iraq: Playing with Numbers and Human Lives (Ramzy Baroud)

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Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust

Aug. 26, 2010 -- The soldiers of the U.S. 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division hollered as they made their way into Kuwait. "We won," they claimed. "It’s over."

But what exactly did they win?

And is the war really over?

It seems we are once again walking into the same trap, the same nonsensical assumptions of wars won, missions accomplished, troops withdrawn, and jolly soldiers carrying cardboard signs of heart-warming messages like "Lindsay & Austin ... Dad’s coming home."

While much of the media is focused on the logistics of the misleading withdrawal of the "last combat brigade" from Iraq on Aug. 19 -- some accentuating the fact that the withdrawal is happening two weeks ahead of the August 31 deadline --most of us are guilty of forgetting Iraq and its people. When the economy began to take center stage, we completely dropped the war off our list of grievances.

But this is not about memory, or a way of honoring the dead and feeling compassion for the living. Forgetting wars leads to a complete polarization of discourses, thus allowing the crafters of war to sell the public whatever suits their interests and stratagems.

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