[CivilWarBrewing]

Only a mistake because 0dunga pissed it all away with a hasty withdrawal.

[refermech]

Yup, there was a good chance things would have worked out. Now, we will never know

[PeteePie]

BINGO

[Ancesthntr]

“Only a mistake because 0dunga pissed it all away with a hasty withdrawal.”

---

I was in favor of the war, but I recognized that we were going about it badly from the git go. The idea of doing it with 150,000 troops (vs. 500,000 for Desert Storm) spoke loud and clear as to what we wanted to do - just get rid of Hussein. There was no thought whatsoever to an insurgency, whether organic or goaded/funded/armed from outside (i.e. Iran). We KNEW in December of 2003 that the Iranians were f’ing with us, and did NOTHING about it until December of 2007. How many of our guys died or were maimed in the intervening 4 years? How much money did we waste? How much good will did we flush down the toilet, domestically and internationally?

No, the war started for the right reasons. But it was a fustercluck from the day planning started because there was no strategy involved. THAT is what Mattis is talking about. WHY are you going in? CAN you achieve your goals and, if so, HOW? HOW do you get out while minimizing our casualties, minimizing the expense and minimizing any damage to our relations with allies and neutrals (I don’t give a damn about enemies - let them suck it up). Oh, and why in Hell didn’t we flatten a few Iranian air and naval bases to let them know to stay the F out of Iraq? Again, no one thought about this before going in - and Mattis will do this before we enter any conflict.

In short, Iraq was a good idea, but the execution was worthy of a 2-year-old. Obola only led to the pooch being screwed a bit earlier than it would have happened ANYWAY.

[dp0622]

No. It was a mistake because WTF were we doing in Iraq when the Sauds were behind the whole ####ing thing????

He let the sauds off the hook to invade some 2 cent dictatorship that was our foil to Iran.

Bush ####ed everything up. obama made it 10x worse when he pulled out the troops.

Good men died for that worthless 2 cent piece of #### country while the Sauds are still making a bundle off of us even after financing the death of 3000 Americans.