It's five years later. Weapons of mass destruction have not been found. An operational relationship between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda has never been established. Iraq had as much to do with 9/11 as Mongolia had to do with Pearl Harbor. The White House has admitted the intelligence buttressing the claim of Hussein seeking uranium from Niger was a hoax. Under American occupation, Iraq is a far more deadly incubator of terrorism than it was under Saddam Hussein. When since-ousted Bush economic advisor Larry Lindsey estimated that the war could cost $200 billion, others in the Bush administration scoffed. The war has cost more than $600 billion thus far. Almost 4,000 Americans have given their lives for this war of choice, and a greater number have given their limbs, damaged their mental health, and sacrificed marriages and family lives. Nearly 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since the outbreak of war and the ensuing chaos. The prospect of an independent longterm democracy in Iraq that keeps order and protects fundamental rights is bleak. America's reputation has been damaged enormously. The Iraq war has been a massive failure, almost without parallel in the history of the United States. The presumptions undergirding it, from bad intelligence to support for unprovoked war to a desire to serve as a crusader against the world's bad guys to the notion that American troops should act as nation-building social workers, have been tremendously harmful. Why did we go five years ago? Why do we stay five years from then?

Ya, but since we went into Iraq, we haven't been attacked, have we now!

Orrr......maybe that might be because our government is finally paying attention to our security? Maybe?

Except when it comes to our borders. ;-(

Before 9/11, when did Islamic terrorists attack Americans on American soil? Every week? No, almost never--'93 WTC, CIA attack, not much else. The body count is actually a number one can count to. In other words, it's difficult to credit the Iraq war with stopping something that, outside of 9/11, never happened much before.

What has happened since the Iraq invasion is that Americans abroad--who, 9/11 aside, have been historically far more at risk from Islamic terror attacks than Americans at home--have been killed by Islamic terrorists at unparalelled rates. I am speaking mainly of the servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan, but one can think of peace activists, journalists, contractors, and others who have been killed by the terrorists since 9/11.

In contrast to the lack of terrorism within the U.S., the terrorism abroad is, in most cases, directly connected to the Iraq venture.

Hopefully one day March 19th 2003 will be remembered as one of America's great national tragedies, right up there with Pearl Harbor or the September 11 terror attacks. It is day when America's enemies, the ones in the government, tricked us into a costly and unnecessary war. Perhaps we will suffer from the consequences of this war for generations.

Whatever the final toll, the Bush Administration has done much greater harm to this country than Osama's band of piddling terrorists could ever dream.

WE ARE WINNING, mus-scums are dying in big numbers. they cant get here, hell where in the world have we been attacked since. i cant think of anyplace. yea the military is straind, but we really didnt unload on these scumbags like we should have. this is a long war, Bush should have called for a draft after 9/11. but he blew it.

"[W]here in the world have we been attacked since"? We--Americans--are being attacked on an almost daily basis in Iraq.

Your right Dan, but these Americans fight back.

""[W]here in the world have we been attacked since"? We--Americans--are being attacked on an almost daily basis in Iraq." - Dan Flynn

In Iraq, we are the aggressors, so it is to be expected.

Dan,

I really like your emphasis in your comments to Tag em and your post on solidarity w/ our soldiers as fellow citizens and human beings. They deserve better than a senseless occupation.

Their sacrifices are noble (exceptions always for those who do act ignobly, as even some soldiers do) and never w/o meaning b/c sacrifices aren't judged by a utilitarian metric. But what the flip are we doing for them letting them dangle there like this? It is just obscene. And the only person who ran for the highest office offering anything other than more senseless killing and war (and thus also was the candidate receiving the most donations from active military) was repeatedly mocked and laughed off debate stages by Republicans. You know, the "pro-military" party.

I would say I am sad for my country, and I am, but mostly I am just over it. I don't really get up for this nations's politics anymore. It is too feckless, decadent, and wholly controlled by miscreants. I want to move to Malta, but they are too smart to let anyone in!

If it wasn't obvious, I was being facetious with the first sentence of my initial comment. 9/11 woke us up and especially woke our government up. Since then, we have been more vigilant in making sure we're better protected and that's why we haven't seen more attacks. Although, many have tried and might have been more successful before 9/11.

That said, we will be subject to other attacks. As we know, Americans have a short attention span and as our defense weakens, there'll be a slip up.

In terms of the borders, that should worry everybody and it beats me how we can spend gold on building a fence/wall between Syria and Iraq but can't secure our own immediate border.

Or course, I know the answer to that.