[WhiteGuy]

Actually, that is a complete myth.

What is a myth?

That they forgot about binladen?

Or that they went into "nation building"

While I'm sure saying that the CIC forgot about binladen was a figure of speech, (I'll bet someone brings his name up in meetings once or twice a week), capturing or killing the person responsible for 9-11 has really not been much of a priority.

The operation in iraq is clearly classical nation building, which was denounced roundly when the former CIC was doing it....

So the number of troops went up.....so what, 5 years later nothing.

A complete myth? Not a chance.

[mnehring]

Complete myth on both. First, that we 'forgot about binLadin', already cited from the commander on the field about that. Second, that we are 'nation building'.. nope, we are nation re-building and controlling the battlefield. It is not 'classical nation building' in that we are creating and controlling the ongoing battlefield in a larger war. After we liberated the Philippines from the Japanese, Eisenhower then used that as a base of operations to continue the battle. The battle for the Philippines wasn't the war, it was a smaller battle in the war. Rebuilding the Philippines after we took the land back was not nation building, it was rebuilding the infrastructure to use as a strategic asset.

[DugwayDuke]

“... capturing or killing the person responsible for 9-11 has really not been much of a priority. ...)

The real priority was ensuring there wasn’t a second 9-11.

[Zman516]

The operation in iraq is clearly classical nation building, which was denounced roundly when the former CIC was doing it....

Entirely different situations. The former CIC's bombing of Bosnian Serbs and his intervention into Haiti had nothing to do with US national security. The war in Iraq against Islamic jihadists has everything to do with our long-range national security, our economic stability, and the very future of the world.