That it was for nothing was decided long before the first Marine crossed the starting line in March of 2003.
I posted THIS on September 13, 2001, and within 72 hours Idiot Bush had made his decision to fight a Vietnam War in South Asia (my option #2), as I predicted he would.
What does a "Vietnam war" mean in this context? It means, we take casualties to demonstrate that we are serious, but we refuse to conquer to demonstrate that we are not mean.
This feminine sort of warfighting has never accomplished a single useful thing anywhere, ever, and yet the entire Uniparty is wedded to it.
Heard the same thing when I was in Vietnam: “hearts & minds”.
In 1972 ROE was weapons hold (do not fire unless fired upon). For us in the Slicks that was normal, but it meant the Cobra drivers might have to take a Strela-7 up the exhaust (”toilet bowl” deflectors were supposed to solve the IR problem).
War waged by politicians seldom succeeds.
Hopefully President Trump will not make the same mistake LBJ and Bush made.