So did Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
Positioning forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan is the right way to surround Iran.
Physical occupation of geography is a concept from the second world war which failed us in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and it is increasingly likely to produce minimal military advantage. In fact, Iraq has taught us that the price to occupy geography is simply too high for our democracy to sustain.
If one thinks that by producing a bloodbath the benefits of occupying geography can be obtained with minimal cost in American blood and treasure, one has to convince the reader that the American democracy would stand for such a strategy, especially in a war of "choice" which we engaged in Iraq. My view is that the country was divided before we went into Iraq, reacted negatively to the revelations coming out of Abu Ghraib, negative to the absence of finding any weapons of mass destruction in the wake of the invasion-especially nuclear weapons.
If the enemy is Iran why not bomb the nuclear facility in Iran rather than squandering blood and treasure in the sands of Iraq so that you can bomb Iran?
