Meanwhile, in Iraq......

KUT, Iraq (AP) — Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities Monday morning, killing 56 people — most of them in the southern city of Kut — in a wave of violence that shattered what had been a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan.

The violence struck from the northern city of Kirkuk to the capital of Baghdad to the southern Shiite cities of Najaf, Kut and Karbala, and emphasized the persistent ability of insurgents to wreak havoc at a time when Iraqi officials are weighing whether they are able to protect the country without the assistance of American troops.

The blasts were coordinated to go off in the morning and included a combination of parked car bombs, roadside bombs and a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station.

The scope of the violence — seven explosions went off in different towns in Diyala province alone — emphasized the still dangerous ability of insurgents to coordinate and carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and U.S. forces. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/56-killed-wave-violence-rolls-across-iraq-090328971.html

from the Vietnam War, and too many U.S. soldier lives have been lost for nothing. Iraqi and Afghan nation building is a failed effort, and we should just leave by coping with this reality. The original goal of dismantling AQ in Afghanistan and removing OBL has been accomplished. Can our troops come home now?

(af varying size) in the 30+ countries remain, the troops in Iraq, the -istan suffixed named countries, Yeman, Libya will remain.

The jobs in the US will continue to disappear, which gives an increasingly large pool of potential enlistees to fill the vacancies in the military spread throughout the globe. It almost seems like a plan.

I wonder if he might have a different view now, as the messiness enters its second decade?

No, of course he hasn't changed his view. The war has been a tremendous and unqualified success. For him and MIC anyway.