[icenine]

I spent my 42nd birthday in Iraq. I imagine if I would have died there it would have of course been bad but at least I would have lived a little over half a life. Many Americans who died there were just out of high school, basically not even started on their lives. The average age of killed in action was 27.

In my heart of hearts I think Dick Chaney had always wanted to invade Iraq since the first Gulf War and perhaps masterminded the whole thing. Who knows. I also think sometimes George Bush is one of these guys who believe because they are born again they have some sort of approval from God to engage in things after "praying about it" for awhile. For most people you pray about not getting sick or what kind of car to buy, or what to do in a family crisis. Not start wars or invade countries. Now to cut him some slack we were all recovering from 9-11, and the President did have sort of a blank check to fight the war on terrorism. Unfortunately good judgement was not one of W's strong points. He made a huge mistake. And I believe if he had to do all over again he would never had invaded Iraq.

I hope someday that Iraq will be a nice place with a representative democracy and that the people who live there are able to enjoy the wealth of their oil. I know I am optimistic but it would be nice to think that all those who died there did not sacrifice their lives in vain. I do not think they will become a client state of Iran.

Yeah and I think the surge was sort of bullshit too. I think what really made the difference was that the Sunni insurgents were paid off by Petraeus in hard American cash. The people in Anbar were sick of Al Queda in Iraq and the civil war with the Shites. I think that is what really ended the main conflict. However today the same Sunnis are not at all happy with Shite government that has been installed in Baghdad.

Well at least Obama got us of that mess. Hopefully he gets us out of Afghanistan. Guess what...throwing your weight around is one thing. Invading countries and burning down cities is easy if you have the resources we do. Now getting the people whose country you just destroyed do what you want? Impossible....

I do not blame the MIC...it is just a resource. The Commander in Chief and the American people are the ones who decide to go to war or not.