Oh yeah, what did we win?  And at what cost did we win it?  Sure 1000 times the blood and treasure we expected based on the Republican leaderships promises, lies, and short sighted estimates.  And we put the same people in charge of Iraq that threw us out of Iran.  Mission accomplished

We shouldn't have fought it in the first place.

One more victory like that and we are surely lost.

The guy who is now in charge of Iraq appreciates us helping him get there?  I. am. shocked.

GWB is a hero, get over it.

Here I thought it was the biggest mistake ever, by the most evil president ever. At least that's what I've been told again and again by our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters on the left.

Someone wanna tell this guy you can win a war or lose a war but that says nothing about the rightness or wrongness of the war?

"Despite all the problems of the past decade, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis agree that we're better off today than under Hussein's brutal dictatorship.
Iraqis will remain grateful for the U.S. role and for the losses sustained by military and civilian personnel that contributed in ending Hussein's rule. These losses pale by comparison, of course, to those sustained by the Iraqi people."

For truth.

Yep.  We won.  Us, and Iran.

so... nation building was the reason for the war? not mushroom clouds and 9/11? well, why didn't bush say so?

and when are we going to liberate syria, north korea, zimbabwe, and west virginia?

I thought we were supposed to get some yellow cake after or something.

Yes, just as I won that war with the canoe by punching a hole in it.

Sure, I got wet, but I won dammit!

Wait, we were at war? When did this happen?

Popcorn Johnny: GWB is a hero, get over it.

And has never made a mistake, and if you don't believe that, just ask him. Or Darth Cheney.

FlashHarry: so... nation building was the reason for the war? not mushroom clouds and 9/11? well, why didn't bush say so?

and when are we going to liberate syria, north korea, zimbabwe, and west virginia?

And Cuba.

By that logic, we should also preemptively invade Syria, Egypt, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea (this may happen), Venezuela, [insert rabble of African countries], and jam our freedom down their throats too!

make me some tea: By that logic, we should also preemptively invade Syria, Egypt, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea (this may happen), Venezuela, [insert rabble of African countries], and jam our freedom down their throats too!

If I told you that over a decade from now the governments we installed in those countries would thank us wouldn't it be totally worth the expense and loss of life?

"LET'S ROLL!"

James!: make me some tea: By that logic, we should also preemptively invade Syria, Egypt, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea (this may happen), Venezuela, [insert rabble of African countries], and jam our freedom down their throats too!

If I told you that over a decade from now the governments we installed in those countries would thank us wouldn't it be totally worth the expense and loss of life?

"LET'S ROLL!"

You mean the corrupt, oppressive governments we installed? F*CK YEAH MERICA

make me some tea: James!: make me some tea: By that logic, we should also preemptively invade Syria, Egypt, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea (this may happen), Venezuela, [insert rabble of African countries], and jam our freedom down their throats too!

If I told you that over a decade from now the governments we installed in those countries would thank us wouldn't it be totally worth the expense and loss of life?

"LET'S ROLL!"

You mean the corrupt, oppressive governments we installed? F*CK YEAH MERICA

Who cares if they're corrupt if they greet us as liberators!? EAGLE FLAG BOOBS!

netizencain: "Despite all the problems of the past decade, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis agree that we're better off today than under Hussein's brutal dictatorship.
Iraqis will remain grateful for the U.S. role and for the losses sustained by military and civilian personnel that contributed in ending Hussein's rule. These losses pale by comparison, of course, to those sustained by the Iraqi people."

For truth.

I wonder what the couple hundred thousand dead or displaced persons say to being better off than before.

keiverarrow: Oh yeah, what did we win?

You aren't from America, are you?

I just won the war with my cheese grater.

Sure, there's blood in my grated cheddar and I've lost most of a fingertip, BUT I WON DAMMIT!

That cheese grater was a direct threat to the security of the cabinets.

Rev.K: I just won the war with my cheese grater.

Sure, there's blood in my grated cheddar and I've lost most of a fingertip, BUT I WON DAMMIT!

At least at the end of that you have cheese.  What is the Iraq cheese?

Sure doesn't feel like it.

I can't wait for the tenth anniversary of this:

To the winner goes the spoils six trillion dollar clean-up bill.

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: One more victory like that and we are surely lost.

Wandered by looking for Plutarch quoting Pyrrhus; thank you.

I liked his subtle jab at Morrissey.

Oh, and checking the piece.... the guy saying it is the current head of the teetering Iraqi state, who has a vested interest in pretending the results are a stable and secure government, and that people think the results are an improvement.

How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving....

A recent headline:

20 killed, 54 wounded in suicide bombing in eastern Iraq Yeah, things have changed so much. The Iraqi government doesn't all hate us, so if that's the definition of victory, then we won. Why did we bother in the first place again? What threat did they pose to us apart from the one we found out was false? I would say that the Iraqi people probably hate us more than ever, since we utterly destroyed--and did not rebuild--their infrastructure.

Popcorn Johnny: GWB is a hero, get over it.

Had the post-invasion strategy been more pragmatic, and taken less of a black and white perspective toward the Baathist bureaucracy, the whole thing would have been over 8 years and six trillion dollars ago and you would be a lot closer to being correct.

However blind arrogance, a lack of appreciation for nuance and realpolitick, and generalized gross incompetence in the Bush administration made that a complete impossibility.

From a military standpoint, if we DIDN'T win a war against Iraq, that would be pretty farking pathetic,

FlashHarry: and when are we going to liberate syria, north korea, zimbabwe, and west virginia?

change West Virginia to Kansas, and I'm in.

Pyrrhic Victory

vartian: Well, that's weird. That whole thing was George Bush's idea, wasn't it? And yet this guy is claiming it was the right thing to do? How can that be right?

Isn't it odd how everybody stopped keeping a death toll of Americans killed overseas after January 20, 2009? But then, as the great lady once said: What difference does it make?

We're seriously having a conversation about an opinion piece in the Daily Caller - like it matters?

I didn't click, so I don't know who the author is, but I imagine Tucker Carlson saying this, with his stupid smug face and little bow-tie, and it brings about unhealthy emotions.

I'm not sure you can honestly say we won or lost that war.  It just happened.  We knocked down the regime, if that's the criteria for victory, what were we sticking around for a decade for?

We seized all of Saddam's massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons, caught Osama bin Laden hiding in Baghdad spooning with Saddam, U.S. troops were out in six weeks, and the war paid for itself.  Just like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz promised.

SUCK IT, LIBS.

Of COURSE we won. To admit otherwise is to acknowledge that we committed the most expensive and idiotic mistake in the history of the free world.

Does he mention when exactly we won the war? We should know so we can have a day of remembrance, like V-E Day.

SilentStrider: FlashHarry: and when are we going to liberate syria, north korea, zimbabwe, and west virginia?

change West Virginia to Kansas, and I'm in.

i still think we should wall off kansas and check back in 50 years. think of the possibilities!

20 years from now they'll admit that Iraq was a mistake, but we "would have won if we stayed in longer".

/much like what they say about Vietnam from time to time.

I remember hearing that all the Iraqi soldiers kept 'melting away' (like the Wicked Witch of the West, I guess).

Turns out -- and this ended up being hilarious -- they had all just gone home with their weapons in order to be ready for the inevitable civil war. An inevitable civil war that our generals and our Secretary of Defense and our President (or even the guy in charge, our Vice President) didn't seem to have anticipated for even a second.

"Yay, we won!" I kept hearing. "Man, we're farked" is what I was thinking.