[EKY Sportster]

The mission of conquering Iraq was over in 2003, but the police patrol and keeping law and order will go on for many years. We can either leave or stay. Given the circumstances of Iran, I think we have to stay until Iraq is stabilized. But I'd love nothing better than to not have invaded in the first place. That is where we screwed up. That is where the credibility was lost and continues to be lost. It all goes back to the cavemasters' playground analogy. We lost credibility by taking action on our own, against world opinion and without any real justification. Iraq was not the threat when we invaded, it was Afghanistan. But Iraq has taken center stage and Afghanistan has been forgotten to some extent and we have paid for it. And where is Osama Bin Laden?? We should have gotten him by now. If we had poured troops into Afghanistan at the same levels as we have Iraq, we would probably have gotten him by now. But now he is most likely in Pakistan and that place is a mess.

As to the cost in lives, one is too many. But as wars go, the casualties have been light. Check the stats with other wars.

The big deal with me is that the war is costing a fortune, draining our military personnel, and the upside doesn't come close to matching the downside. We should never have invaded to start with. But now that we are there, what do we do, hand it over to Iran??