Farging ISILs flourished b/c we didn't wipe them out - and not b/c we lack the technical means, but rather we lack the prerequisite morality that states: we have a right to exist. Once upon a time, we squashed head-choppers (think Japan and quantum physics).

Lloyd, From my time in Iraq (post-surge, pre-election) I found there to be a great deal of enthusiasm for the elections and hope for the future among the leaders and doctors I had the opportunity to interact with (granted, small sample). I think there was enough social capital "substrate" there to have a decent shot at long-term stability. I think a longer term US presence in an out of the way corner (and that describes about third of the country) would have gone a long way to guide Iraq along the path, perhaps curb the worst of Maliki's excesses, and positively influence the region. We'll never know; it might have been doomed from the start. I do think, given all the blood and treasure we spent to get to that point, we should have been willing to commit to the longer term project.

That is absurd Lloyd - seriously. Do you realize how long we stayed in Japan, West Germany/Germany, South Korea, etc? Do you know we are still in Kosovo? The point is, they all said the SAME thing long ago about the Japanese, the Koreans, the Germans, etc., "there is no way they will ever be peaceful, be capable of maintaining a democracy, etc." Of course it was all rubbish. RONALD REAGAN was right, just as GW Bush, all human beings desire a healthy free existence, the best for themselves and their families. And it takes time to overcome DECADES of engrained propaganda (especially the anti-US) sophistry, ironically what the foolish Democratic Partisans adopted during and post the Vietnam battle in the Cold War.

The real irony is, the Arab Spring was a very obvious response to the local liberation of 25 million oppressed in Iraq (from a monstrous dictator who funded - trained - harbored global terrorists). The entire ME Region was pushing for freedom, but we had the idiot Democrats failing to lead with such great opportunity. The newly created free Iraq was a functioning democracy, stable, secure, fighting along with the USA against the Jihadists. It was working and positively influencing the region, as the entire Arab Region was pushing similar liberation. Obama and the Democrats mindlessly pissed it all away, after sincere sacrifice, for pathetic personal political obsessions. Now it is blowing up in their ugly faces, as well as the world's. The Obama Team chose to side with the despots, the likes of the Iranian thugs slaughtering their own seeking freedom, even the oppressive Muslim Brotherhood. All of it could have been guided into a far more positive direction. Would not be perfect, but vastly better than the Obama/Clinton train wreck we see today.