What happens when the gene pool gets overchlorinated?

The Ballad Of Poppy Il Sung

This utterly stupid and pointless war resulted in absolutely nothing being accomplished. It began on a lie and is ending in failure.

What’s left is a corrupt regime, a country that will likely descend into civil war, and a pro-Iranian check on US objectives in the Middle East. The oil remains in the ground, the killing of civilians remains unchecked, and the US has the blood of hundreds of thousands (not to mention the millions of refugees) on its hands.

Gorilla says: “A great failure, a great disaster, a worthless Pentagon, and a lying President combined to deliver a big fat zero!”

Gorilla says: “Or we could hire 300,000 Americans and pay them each a salary of $30K for a year!”

Sound familiar?

What never happens as a result of these inquiries is any sort of punishment at any level further up the chain of command.

Heaven forbid we actually held the generals accountable for the failings of their troops!!!

Gorilla says: “Or their bankers, who also got away scot free!!!”

But they’re not Americans, and we don’t see much about Iraq on the news anymore, so the surge must have worked!

Until of course we’re out for good, after which the civil war can resume in earnest…

And yes, it’s pretty much the same story in Afghanistan, Libya, and Somalia. Strategic air power alone doesn’t win wars, and there aren’t sufficient troops anywhere to provide even basic security, let alone “victory”.

Gorilla says: “These pointless wars could be described as Shiite, minus one eye if you’re British, and one eye and one e if you’re Petraeus!”

Like Karzai, like Maliki, like various Pakistanis, like Libyan rebels, like Somali non-Islamists, we hope for the best, but we’re still not ready to accept the worst!

Gorilla says: “And so we are, more or less, in stand by idiocy!”

Our “victory” in Iraq was of course really a victory for Iran, who have gotten a friendly government installed while also supplying even more friendly Shiite groups that might overthrow said government. The Sunnis of course are also bombing away.

8 years on from invasion, and with withdrawl just around the corner, this pointless war had produced absolutely nothing of lasting value.

Gorilla says: “Panetta talks tough, but everyone knows we’re going!”

Everyone’s waiting around for the civil war to restart, and once we’re gone it will!

Gorilla says: “No longer worth pretending that this was a success!”

And he’s right, the Europeans simply don’t have the military capacity to win in Libya without boots on the ground.

Of course, that’s the conclusion the Administration should have reached before embarking on the stupidest military operation since Iraq.

NATO itself should have been abolished 20 years ago, it has no strategic mission now that the Cold War is over.

But the larger dismal failure is the Pentagon, with a budget greater than the rest of the world’s militaries combined and unable to win against a similar bunch of ragtag tribesman after 10 years in Afghanistan.

Gorilla says: “Time to break the war bonds!”

Nobody in DC talks about Iraq at all. Dozens of Iraqis are still being killed. Attacks on US soldiers continue. The central government doesn’t appear to have any answers to restore either economic growth or law and order.

Gorilla says: “A trillion or so later, and nothing to show for it!”