Mongoose @ 95:Iraq was a brilliant campaign,

Er, I wouldn’t say that.

Strategically, … perhaps. Tactically … negatory.

The main offensive was minimally competent, and the Iraqi regular forces quite rational in running away, who could. OTOH we were very unready for the aftermath and handled it very poorly until “the surge”, where we lucked out a bit when the Iraqi Sunnis got sick of standing in for their jihadi brethren for purely sectarian and impractical reasons. “Shock and awe” was shockingly stupid. Unprotected supply lines, was almost fatally stupid.

But leftard nostalgia for the Clinton days in which we hid under the bed while the enemy advanced and the river washed away the foundation, is beyond stupid. Even economically, Clinton let the telcos and oil companies all merge, and saw the defense companies “consolidate”. And the first bubble was Greenspan’s 1991 cheap money that lasted all through Clinton’s presidency, and fwiw popped before Clinton could blow town. And of course Clinton and the dems were all for the CRA loans that finally blew up – though I blame Wall Street, not DC, for that.