It was not a senseless waste of lives.
The Gulf States are thriving after the removal of the threat and actual invasion of Saddam.
The capture of Baghdad was an extension of the freeing of Kuwait after a hiatus of 10 years or so.
I don’t really see thriving Gulf states as much consolation. Qatar is housing the Taliban 5, not monitoring them, have given them sanctuary so they can plan the brutal deaths of Americans. Saudi is probably funding ISIS. UAE has close ties to Iran. Iraq is either about to be a very rich Al Qaeda country or another Iranian proxy. No, this war was an absolute waste. The soldiers deserve to be honored for what they did, the politicians deserve to be *self censored*!!