It would not have been my choice to ask thousands of America's best to endure injury, maiming, and death in the first place. But there is nothing to be gained by pursuing this point. The strategic interests of America are now best served by endowing Iraqis with the capability of standing on their own - ideally long enough to give Iraqis a shot at something resembling western civilization (with at least a few trappings of liberty), but, minimally, long enough for America to get out and wash its hands. While military victory was achieved long ago, we have some distance to go on the former point.
Not to paint myself as an optimist, but I hope the proponents of Wilsonianism have learned a valuable lesson about throw-back cultures, third-world democracy, and tribalism. Again.
I was chatting with my dad who asserted that the Bush presidency was incompetent. I asked why FDR didn’t stop Hitler in 1935.
Dad said ‘Well, we didn’t tink Hitler was a threat.’
My response: ‘Well, after 295,000 US service men died in combat, who was incompetent?’