Naive and to a certain extent unfair. Unfair to ask American military personnel to expend their lives on “noble and well intentioned” when their duty is “protect and defend the United States”.
Also, there was a huge opportunity cost. Post-9/11, President Bush had a huge amount of political capital. Instead of using it to close the border (which would relate directly to future 9/11 attacks), he used it for “noble and well intentioned”.
We were there for Saudi Arabia.
It’s criminal after the 1973 Oil Embargo that we did not come up with an Energy Independence Program to wean ourselves off of Arab oil, we are slaves to it, and this is the result.