May 1, 2003. A Navy jet makes a dramatic tailhook landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln somewhere off the coast of San Diego. The jet has been dressed up with new decals identifying it as Navy 1; "George W. Bush Commander-in-Chief is painted beneath the cockpit window.

The war in Iraq is over.

The Commander-in-Chief dressed up for the occasion too. Wearing a dark green flight suit and carrying a helmet under his arm, and looking like an extra in Top Gun, George W. Bush gazes up at a giant banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished". He gives a big thumbs up sign.

Later that evening, the President gives a speech from the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers flight deck announcing, that major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

That was almost five years ago.

But as far as Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden, was concerned - nothing had ended. The following September, he said, "The American defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan has become just a question of time€¦ The Americans are between two fires. If they remain [in Iraq] they will bleed to death, and if they withdraw they will have lost everything.

Weve been bleeding in Iraq ever since. So have the Iraqis.

Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq; more than 29,000 wounded.

Over a million Iraqis have died since the invasion.

And the U.S. economy has been fatally wounded as well

Nineteen young men armed with $3 box cutters started a war that has the U.S. spending $3,000,000,000 per week in Iraq.

Our current economic woes are inextricably linked to the war in Iraq. And its not just the huge sums of money weve spent -much of which we've had to borrow because of irresponsible tax cuts. (Historically taxes have been increased to pay for wars.) It's also about oil. It plays a big role in our current economic misery. Theres no denying that one of the reasons we chose to go to war was to protect our oil interests in the Middle East. Oil was under $30 a barrel when Bush landed on that aircraft carrier. Today its over $100 a barrel, and climbing.

Admittedly, this is a gross over-simplification of the economics of the situation, yet the result of our actions is clear. Financial ruin threatens us every bit maybe more so than Al Qaeda. Our financial future has been put in jeopardy because of the hubris of our leaders George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Were it not for their maniacal rush to war to depose Saddam Hussein, we would likely be in a far better place today.

This fall well have an opportunity to choose a different destiny. Americans will have a clear choice: John McCain will keep us on our present course Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will point us in a new direction. I would think that would a simple decision for most voters.