The Iraq War

      Just before the invasion of Iraq it was well known in my church bible study group that I felt the invasion of Iraq was a disaster waiting to happen.  It would be a trillion dollars, 15,000 dead Americans, and not matter if we were there for 5 years or 50 years, the day after we would inevitably leave, the next thug would rush into power and likely be even worse than Saddam Hussein.  It seemed clear that our Air Force through satellite technology and precision bombing could easily have dealt with any threat of  weapons of mass destruction. 13 Years later the actual cost of the war is at two trillion dollars, 4,500 hundred dead American  military personnel, 32,000 wounded, hundreds of thousands of military children and families left with direct trauma from loved ones coming out of a war zone as well as the PTSD victims, 32 military personnel suicides a day, something much worse than Saddam Hussein taking his place, and the U.S. the blood of  hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and military personnel on its hands. The first president Nouri al-Maliki, whom the U.S. had put in power to replace Saddam Hussein, got the ball rolling in his new role by sentencing his political opponent to death (had to be smuggled to Turkey), and now Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslims, as well as their opponents, see no option other than large-scale, long-term violence until the other is crushed, oppressed, or dead.  There is enough revenge stored up against the West in all of the orphans and victims to last for centuries.

      And American's are left with the equivalent of verbal and political warfare at home launching blame at one another for the disaster of wasted time, money, and human lives.