That's because as time goes on, it becomes more obvious that toppling Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government was one of the dumbest things the U.S. has done in decades.
I wish conservatives who think it’s still December 2001 would wake up. I almost threw up last night listening to BOR and Krauthammer going on and on about how much to put back into Iraq - a little (BOR) vs. a lot (CK).
Here’s a clue - we’re not going back.
They won. We lost. Everything about the “war on terror” was misconceived (except for the brilliant SOF captures of KSM, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Abu Zubadayah - but once they were allowed to live, even that was wasted). Bad tactics, worse strategy, losses we could not afford, absolutely no plan whatsoever for victory.
We lost. This is what defeat in war looks like. This is why it sucks to lose.
And we don’t get a second chance.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
No, rather what we should have done is to help put a Iraqi strongman in power, one who is willing to ruthlessly stamp out the Islamists. Yossef Bodansky said that there were Russian trained Iraqi Army officers who were willing to launch a coup to oust Saddam and his regime. We should have maybe used them.