Osama was in Afghanistan, the 9-11 attack was based in Afghanistan. Bush left the job half-finished in Afghanistan to the benefit of al-Qaeda and Iran. Osama's happiest day was when Bush decided to deplete precious American blood and American wealth in a long Iraqi war.
Iraq actually became a great trap to attack and kill terrorists. AL Queda sent their best in to go after us, and we killed an awful lot of them. Much easier battle field for us than the Afghanistan terrain.
I can second guess tactics in both Afghanistan and Iraq, but not the mission for each.
It was common knowledge in 03 (I know I was there) Saddam's weapons went to Syria. Every Iraqi couldn't wait to tell every American they met. It was also common knowledge the Mukhabarat imported jihadis - the Joint Communications Center in Ramadi was formerly the Mt HQ in Al-Anbar....all of our "neighbors" relayed their accounts of mass amounts of 'Arabs' being brought in ("Arabs" is how the Iraqis refer to them).
This is aside from the 500tons of yellow cake the Iraqis still had post-invasion. Aside from the bio/chem-IED labs we found. I happen to know one of the Marines that earned a medal when he discovered one and handled the situation appropriately.
Osama portrayed he was happy that Iraq was the graveyard for Americans (dutifully repeated by the MSM and insinuated by you)....but it was propaganda.
The groups had trouble equipping, recruiting, and funding war on two fronts. Hence when Ar Ramadi was declared the capital of the Islamic State of Iraq in Oct 2006......it was no surprise the Iraqi Police had it under control in Jan/Feb 2008 and peaceful.
Oh, and by the way, as Bush's 'misadventure' we have another terror state flanked on two sides by large U.S. military forces.....take a look at that land mass directly between Iraq and Afghanistan.....you know the one that calls us the Great Satan and threatens to wipe us off the map.
We used to have a strong stance and a WAR ON TERROR. Now we have overseas homeland contingency operations.
We used to say we would go after the countries that support terrorism and the terrorists wherever we find them. Now they're on the streets of Boston finding us.
Find the parallels and correlations yet?
You are entitled to your opinions and regular teevee programming.....but it still doesn't change the facts on the ground.