Did America win like most of its wars including the previous Gulf War?
Did America lose like it did in Vietnam?
Did America tie like it did in the War of 1812 the Korean War?
Which is it? I honestly have no clue. It's why I call it a tie if asked.
All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you...
-Snow Patrol
Saddam and his family are gone. Iraq is no longer has any WMD programs or threatens its neighbours. The current government appears to be, if not a close ally, then at least moderately friendly toward the West.
Oh, and the UN forces won the Korean War. It was fought not to change the regime in Pyongyang, but to drive them out pf South Korea. In this it was quite successful indeed. 1812 was a clear loss in that the US started it, ended up worse than they began, and achieved no significant changes in British policy.
This is mere opinion but...
America won the second Gulf War. Saddam Hussein and his horrid sons were killed. The Iraqi army was shattered. the Baathist party tossed out of office.
America lost the peace in Iraq. L. Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush were idiots who had no idea what to do with Iraq after the fighting ended. They should not have disbanded the army. The Baath Party, while an evil and nasty group, at least kept the country together. They had no idea how deteriorated the oil production and moving facilities were (Saddam let them fall apart. The only way we could measure how much oil was loaded onto a tanker was by measuring how deep the hull lowered in the water.)
The years long insurgency, the rise of ISIS and the inability to rebuild the Iraqi army into one capable of protecting the nation, such as it is, could not be counted as anything but a loss and total embarrassment for America. It's a shame we won't live down for decades to come.
I agree with you for what it worth
People seem to forget when we entered Baghdad we did so as Heros to the people there.
Disbanding the army was ludicrous, I could see getting rid of the generals, Colonels, and Lt. Colonels, but below that all you have are middle management and lower, , the folks that run thing under-orders, they could have been retrained. We did it with Germany after WW2, of course there was always a US forces present till now, and that was the plan, post Saddam
Same with disbanding the total Government, they were the people that knew how to run things, could have gotten rid of the top Secretaries, Directors, and 1 or 2 levels of upper management and retrained the others
You don't have to stand tall, but you do have to stand up!