“This nation building crap is and always will be a failure and a criminal waste of American lives and treasure. “
Yep! After all, we did such a poor job of it in Germany, Japan, Korea...
The problem is not that it cannot be done, but that it cannot be done on the cheap, in 5-10 years.
I’m no history professor but I’m fairly certain we did not embark on WWII with the intention of bringing democracy to the Axis powers. Something about a surprise attack...
I know each country is different and that Japan and Korea were alien cultures to our own just as Iraq is an alien culture. I don’t think 10 years is near enough, nor even 50.
Germany was in reality our own culture. Korea wanted us there. Japan was strange, but we truly did totally defeat them with the nuke bomb.
Iraq is a different nut to crack. 100 years maybe.