And yet, here we are — more than a decade after Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched — and US and Iraqi soldiers are, once again, battling over control of Mosul.

The battle for Mosul is being met with considerable indifference or nonchalance among many Americans. After all, there are so many more important things to talk about, such as sex scandals. But the fact that US troops are still fighting, killing, and dying in Iraq 13 years after the US invasion of the country (and 26 years after the US government's Persian Gulf intervention) is truly remarkable.

Not surprisingly, the US mainstream press and the US national-security establishment are doing their best to put their best spin on the upcoming battle for Mosul. They are showing how US warplanes are "softening" up the enemy with bombing raids on the city. They are reporting how Iraqi troops, counseled by US military advisers, are readying for their long-awaited attack to liberate the city from ISIS, which is the group that came into existence as a direct consequence of the US invasion of Iraq.

US officials and the mainstream press, however, are missing the big picture: The battle for Mosul, thirteen years after the US invasion of Iraq, only goes to show what a disaster US interventionism has been in Iraq and, for that matter, all over the Middle East. After all, thirteen years is more than enough time to have brought peace, prosperity, harmony, and liberty to the Iraqi people.

The ultimate goal in the battle for Mosul is the preservation of the Iraqi government — that is, the regime that the US invasion installed into power. In fact, not surprisingly, many of the people who compose ISIS are former members of the Saddam Hussein regime — the regime that the US invasion ousted from power.