An anniversary not likely to be acknowledged heavily (if at all) by US officials, Monday marks the 11-year anniversary of the disastrous US invasion of Iraq, starting a protracted occupation the left huge numbers of Iraqi civilians dead.

Spun as a victory and a war that “ended” with the US pullout, Iraq saw a brief decline in violence after the US finally left, but a big escalation over the past year that has seen al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a group in large part created to resist the US occupation, seizing significant portions of the Anbar Province.

And while US involvement doesn’t include boots on the ground, the US isn’t exactly “out” of Iraq, pumping large amounts of weapons into the country today as part of a promise to help them fight AQI.

Between the weapons shipments and constant calls from hawks to return to a direct military role inside Iraq, the US seems less “out” of Iraq than any time since they physically withdrew, and are looking forward to years of intervention in various forms.