Few pundits would have guessed that 160,000 troops would still be in Iraq, the highest level since the invasion. At least this is what the talking heads will say, if they had paid attention to the experts, they would have known even 160,000 was too few.
What even the experts may not have realized is the other damage that the Iraq war would cause. Now U.S. military power is spread way to thin, and much of the expensive American arsenal is irrelevant to the modern warfare being fought in Iraq. Our economic power and standing in the world has been greatly weakened, just as our diplomacy and foriegn policy which is in disarray.
The thing is we should have known this was coming.
George Bush was a train wreck as a businessman, we should have known that this was in the cards.
Of course Cheney calls it a success... The thing is I believe for him it has been a success. Haliburton and KBR have made millions, oil companies are reaping the largest profits in the history of the world for any company, and he gets to act like a tough guy.
Now what do we do to end the occupation? That is the question we need to really start, and has not happened enough. The debate gets to tied to politics lately.
Who will be better at ending the war, Hillary or Barak?
I believe Barak would be better, but others might believe that Hillary would. What ever it is readily apparent that only a Democrat will actually start looking at Iraq through anything other than rose colored glasses.
posted by jrolsen 
