Did you spend any time sweating your ass off filling sandbags in Iraq, dodging bullets, and hoping the sound of that stray incoming wasn’t coming to visit YOU?
I’ll bet not.
I was in the first trip there, not the second. My brother went the second time and learned exactly what IEDs are.
Nation building, as you neocons so fondly call it sucks. Especially for soldiers. There was no real reason for the second trip - but the Saudis were afraid for their oil reserves, and we needed to keep the oil supply safe for the rest of the world.
I too saw the photos of the convoys leaving Iraq bound for Syria and the Bekaa valley. The Democrats sat and delayed, along with the UN, until the WMDs were mostly out of the area.
Since the decision was made to go, we should have been allowed to prosecute the war FULLY, win completely, and get the f_ck out of there, and move on to Iran instead of trying to teach democracy to a bunch of Islamic tribes that had no understanding or desire to have a European style government. If the desire was to keep America safe, we chose the wrong country to invade. Iraq had no part of 9/11 - they were a threat to Saudi Arabia, not the US.
The ME was forced into nations after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, given borders that did not fall along tribal or religious lines, and will never succeed. Spending any additional American blood to build nations is a folly at best, and the globalist Bush family does indeed share plenty of blame.
When W didn't move on to Iran I knew it wasn't going to turn out well for us.
I remember feeling puzzled went we didn't go.
I wanted him to nuke Iran before we committed a single soldier.