Let’s be clear. The US military is extremely competent. This is a fact whether you agree with what they do or not, they are scary good at what they do.
Yes. This is true. We did not lose in Iraq or Afghanistan militarily. We lost because of poor statecrafting ability.
Kinda yeah. There was no real plan there. Having the US military prop up a government and then leave isn’t going to work. That’s why Afghanistan was a failure.
Arguably Iraq did work though. The government the US installed persists to this day.
Now if we measure it by the metric of “fighting terror” then yes failure all around. If the goal was to remove Sadam and create a US friendly government well that did happen.
Different conversation is should we have ever gone there in the first place and the answer is no
Yes. This is true. We did not lose in Iraq or Afghanistan militarily. We lost because of poor statecrafting ability.
Kinda yeah. There was no real plan there. Having the US military prop up a government and then leave isn’t going to work. That’s why Afghanistan was a failure.
Arguably Iraq did work though. The government the US installed persists to this day.
Now if we measure it by the metric of “fighting terror” then yes failure all around. If the goal was to remove Sadam and create a US friendly government well that did happen.
Different conversation is should we have ever gone there in the first place and the answer is no