As five years have passed and we are perhaps days away from having the 4,000th American killed in action, it is hard to come up with original words to describe the continuing horror of Iraq. How many times can we revisit the dishonest entrance into this war, the death and destruction that it has caused, the loss of respect around the world and the extraordinary toll it has taken on our own economy? The real tragedy is that words, actions and prayers just don't seem to work in ending this hopeless quagmire.

No matter how many times we march, write or elect, the ability to scale back and end this war seems to elude us. We are even at a point where we are being told that the 'surge' is working even though Iraq's elected leaders still are inable or incapable of maintaining any reliable governmental stability. That being said, of course, when troops withdraw from certain areas violence invariably strikes once again. Just these past two weeks, suicide bombers have been back in play and in the news. Turkey has been conducting incursions into Iraq's borders creating a growing regional aspect of this nightmare. Iran's leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinijad, an historical enemy of Iraq, can, with days of notice, have a 'head of state' visit in Baghdad while our own elected leaders must sneak in without notice and under armed protection. Recent such American visitors, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Senator John McCain, just made clueless remarks about what a grand success the war has been.

Tell that to the Iraqi people who have suffered beyond description, emerging from the horrors of Saddam's regime only to encounter a cycle of mass violence, death and destruction. Entire neighborhoods lie in rubble, the infrastructure is in shambles, it is a rare family who has not experienced death in this war and democracy still seems far away. The conservative death toll of Iraq citizens approaches 200,000 with hundreds of thousands injured. Almost the entire upper and middle classes have fled as refugees to other nations. Sunni and Shiite appear to be no closer together. And as reported in The New York Times last Sunday, massive black market corruption has overwhelmed the country, especially with regards to the oil production. Grand success, indeed.

And the price we have paid as a nation and a people is nearly as impossible to total.

The young men and women who have given their lives at their nation's call deserve our respect and honor. The tens of thousands of seriously injured demand our attention, assistance and good will. Those who have gone to Iraq in a spirit of helping to create good out of the bad should also be remembered for their bravery. The journalists who day in and day out have placed their own lives at risk to bring us the story and the truth also should be saluted. The dedication and heart all have displayed is, well, heartbreaking.

Now it has become abundantly clear that our economy is a total wreck. In tandem with the housing sub-prime loan debacle, the other main reason for our fiscal woes can be traced directly to this war. The billions and billions and billions and billions that have been wasted on this futile effort is astounding. With those funds, our nation could have been put to work rebuilding our infrastructure, teachers could have been hired, children could have received healthcare, schools could been built, college tuitions could have been paid for, the homeless could have had homes and New Orleans could be thriving! Instead, we continue to pour money down the drain in a dishonest and misguided misadventure. The madness is more than maddening: it is dangerously psychotic.

Wrong is wrong. This war was wrong from the start. This war has been wrong for the last five years. This war is wrong now.

It is time to stop throwing around meaningless words like "Surrender" and "Victory" in reference to this struggle. One thing the woebegone Bush Administration has successfully proved is that a conventional war will never solve the horror of terrorism. Brighter minds with better ideas need to be elected in November. In the meantime, let's bring our sons and daughters home so they help heal and rebuild America.