Irrelevant. Our troops did the job and paid the price. To say their sacrifice was in vain is disrespectful. The Surge worked remarkably well. The problem came when Obama -- against the advice of generals and Pentagon chiefs -- refused to leave any troops behind to prevent Al Queda filling the vaccum. OBAMA is the issue here, not Bush or our troops past actions. That you wish to make that your focus , makes me suspicious of your motives.
Well I don’t think you should be suspicious of a right-wing senior citizen and veteran.
I don’t believe in useless military activity, especially when one reflects on the Korean (my war) and Vietnam Wars and the fact that we left one in an eternal stalemate and the other in a disgraceful retreat.
I could go on and on about our involvement in foreign wars and military actions subsequent to 1917, but then there are a plethora of books on the subject which I feel certain you have read your share of them.
But chew on this factoid: we don’t even defend our borders and have literally shredded what this Republic once stood for. How can we continue to build larger embassies, schools, hospitals, roads and airports in foreign countries when we are as bankrupt as Zimbabwe?
That was due to the inability/unwillingness of DoS to negotiate immunity for US soldiers/contractors after the signing of the of the US/Iraq Status of Forces Agreement. No one wants to see an American end up in a foreign jail as "payback" for activities in a foreign country, and that was a real possibility in Iraq. The "government" we rebuilt for them is a petulant child looking for revenge.
Yes, the troops did their job, but I agree with IBJensen, we should never went into Iraq to begin with. We should have expended the effort on Saudi Arabia.