Wars Worth

The era roughly defined from 911 to Arab Spring as Great Satan's Enemy Decimation Decade yields tons of reflection and consideration. 

Are the New Millennium's wars worth it?  

N'ork City Great Satan fans hook up with über savvy cats about "the stewardship, and security ten years on."

Like this choice piece courtesy of Teufel Hunden's Warcraft Academy academic cadre - the same cats who gave us COINista gankstas like Dr Mark Moyer and the essential "Question of Command"- brings the bling with cirriculum cohort Professor Lacey, former All American/Screaming Eagles, Institute for Defense Analyses cat.

Dr L's office on 911 was in World Trade Center’s Tower 2 and shares a unique perspective:

In 2003, I traveled with the 101st Airborne Division during the invasion of Iraq. Since then I have been over to Iraq on multiple occasions. On each visit I ask myself: Are we doing anything here that is worth the cost in blood and treasure? 

A decade ago the answer was easy. Al-Qaeda was, and remains, a vile organization that is dedicated to America’s destruction. As such, it needs to be hunted into extinction. A similarly strong case can be made for the justness of deposing Saddam Hussein’s evil dictatorship. The world is better off without a man who was responsible for murdering a million Iraqis and launching two unprovoked wars on his neighbors. That the Iraq government also maintained close ties with global terrorist groups and was rapidly reconstituting its WMD programs made its removal all the more imperative.

Now, a decade later, the world has changed and the nation confronts new challenges. We have given Iraq and Afghanistan their best possible chance for democratic growth and future prosperity. It is up to them to grasp it. This is not a time for America to withdraw from the world and retrench. 

Yet it is a time to realign our priorities, reset our military forces, and position ourselves to meet the dangers and grasp the opportunities of the future.

Pic - "Dell'arte della guerra"