[[ A waste of American blood and treasure. That's what this is, a waste. ]]
I was saying as much years ago, over on "that other site".
[[ What's the lesson? I say it's that military intervention cannot reconcile Islam. ]]
The point of "military intervention" should never have been to "reconcile islam" in the first place -- any more than our intervention in World War II was intended to "reconcile Nazism".
The point of military intervention should have been to DISMANTLE islam, and replace it with something else.
I realized our efforts in the Middle East were doomed to failure the day the [new] Iraqi government adopted a new Constitution which stated islam to be the official state religion.
Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss.
The "boss", in islamic nations, is not the government or the strongman of the day.
The boss is a guy whose name starts with "m" and who actually has been dead for 1,400 years.
If you want a Middle Eastern world that no longer poses a threat to The West, THAT"S "the boss" that has to be gotten rid of.
[[ Muslim adherents must come to modernity on their own, through an expanded world view. ]]
Never going to happen.
Repeat, never.