Legacy 1
The Guardian:
UN inspectors were on the ground in Iraq and had not found a single weapon of mass destruction. Iran had stopped making nuclear weapons and was seeking a grand bargain with the west. The quality of the army was at an all-time high, the US had a budget surplus and oil was $25 a barrel.
Five years later, after nearly 4,300 US and allied military deaths and the wounding of another 30,000, the direct expenditure of nearly $1 trillion dollars, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the displacement of millions, the US is still containing Iraq. Only this time it is containing Iraq’s multiple civil wars and propping up its weak and dysfunctional central government.
The cost to the United States goes far beyond the direct cost of the unnecessary invasion and mishandled occupation. America’s reputation around the globe is in tatters, and the country has little moral standing even among its traditional allies.
Like I said.
March 17, 2008 at 3:24 pm
We could dump our support for Israel and get back our reputation with most of those "allies" in a heartbeat. It’s all we’d have to do.