A Pitiful Legacy

Whoooppee.

The U.S. announced today that our troop level in Iraq is below 100,000.

The lowest number since we invaded in 2003.

We invaded with a number prescribed by politicians and appointees. General Eric Shinsheki argued for two to three times the number so that we could have a chance to truly secure the country.

He was fired for his opinion.

Today, the poor man runs the Veterans Administration and is hamstrung by Congress and the administration to get money and services to our veterans who volunteered their lives to go do the country's bidding.

Our troops are on the way out.

It takes lots of planning and logistics to move people and equipment into and out of a war zone.

My question after the trillions of dollars and thousands of disfigured lives is, so what?

What did we accomplish?

Are we safer today than when we invaded Iraq?

Is Iran lesser than or more than a threat than when we invaded Iraq?

Are we any closer to tamping out radical Islam than before we invaded Iraq?

Specifically, how many radical Islamists were there before we invaded Iraq and how many are there now?

How many radical Islamist terrorist actions have happened since we invaded Iraq?

How many WMD's did we find in Iraq?

Does Israel feel safer today than before we invaded Iraq?

Is Hamas, Hezbollah, the Syrian secret police, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, al Qaeda in Yemen, the Muslim Brotherhood less of a threat than before we invaded Iraq?

Is Afghanistan more stable than before we pulled our resources from there after we toppled the Taliban so that they could be reassigned to Iraq?

How stable is the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf today versus when we invaded Iraq?

How happy is the Iranian government, whoever it is and however corrupt and merciless it may be, today than when we invaded Iraq?

How many good American men and women spent countless hours making bonds with Iraqis that wanted peace, and now are leaving them defenseless against the borderless Iraq?

What's different between the Shia, Sunni and Kurds in Iraq since the day we invaded?
(The answer is the Shia now control, the Sunnis are in fear, and the Kurds don't stand a chance.)

What a great day.

What a celebration.

Can't wait until all of our folks are out of Iraq.

My greatest concern is for the family of the last G.I. to fall in that country.

That family will have good reason to ask, why?