After almost nine years, 4,479 fatalities, 33,169 soldiers wounded, 12,000 Iraqi civilian deaths and an almost a trillion dollars spent, the Iraq war is finally over. In a press conference Friday, President Obama announced that U.S. troops will be pulled out of Iraq by the end of the year, ending the longest, most wasteful and ridiculous war in American history.

March 20, 2003 was an ordinary day for me. After attending school, cleaning, cooking and taking care of my children, I was in the bed watching the news when images of a U.S.-led coalition bombing the crap out of Baghdad flooded my television screen. I immediately thought about my three children, then ages fifteen, eleven, and a not quite two-year-old and how screwed up the world was and how stupid the American public was for buying into the propaganda that was being spread by our politicians and the media.

You see, I never believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction buried somewhere deep in a cave close to hell in Iraq. Why? Because if he had had those type of weapons, he would have blasted the U.S. to kingdom come a long time ago. To me, it was just an excuse for Bush to get vengeance for his father, bogart (steal) Iraq’s rich oil resources and meddle in the political and cultural affairs of another country when he should have been worried about his own. It was as clear as the nose on my face but some of my fellow Americans are quite gullible and will believe anything rich people tell them.

Over the next eight years, I saw my country go from the richest, proudest country in the world to a reviled, morally and financially bankrupt country with people living in tent cities, a banana republic for all intents and purposes. When these soldiers come home, they will have deal with high unemployment (13.3% for Iraq veterans), poor healthcare, politicians who use them for photo ops and a multitude of problems. They gave up their regular lives and families to fight for their country only to come home to a pot of shit.

If I had the opportunity, I would love to ask the cheerleaders of the Iraq War a few questions: was it really worth it? Was the 700 billion dollars spent on this madness really worth the soul of America? Did we really bring democracy to Iraq? What was really accomplished? I know I will never get an answer from them but I already know the answer: Hell no!