Happy 5th Birthday, Iraq War!

This weekend marks the passing of yet another year in our thousand-year Mesopotamian adventure. Just yesterday it seemed our little Iraq War would be smothered in its crib, too fragile to survive more than a few months. But it surprised us all with its moxie and stick-to-it-iveness, and now our tiger is old enough to go to War Kindergarten.

Sometimes it's easy to forget about our little War with all the important distractions here at home -- like the time the Governor of New York spent the equivalent of several (non-Bay Area) mortgage payments on sex with an unimaginatively tattooed 22-year-old , or the time that Presidential candidate was called a plagiarist . We are comforted that our formerly lonely, broke War at least has some company these days: the fourteen billion new troops we "temporarily" sent over a year ago, and the massive piles of money we shipped in lieu of a birthday present.

Stay strong, little War, and we'll see you next year!

 Five years in Iraq strain U.S. Army, force change" [Reuters]