I’ve heard the same question on KPBS this morning and here it is what came to mind immediately. I don’t know if I could call these accomplishments, but they might be for some:
1) Spending aprox $12 billion daily with our troops deployed
2) The dead count is way over 3,000 for our troops (no clue how many maimed for life)
3) Barrel of oil at about $111 from $36 pre-war level
4) Dick Cheney – is richer via Halliburton’s fat contracts
5) We know that WMDs and Iraq’s ex president were no real treat to the US (WMD were non-existent; Sadam Hussein was a big loud mouth – a little bit like Alan Greenspan – just not in the same line of business)
6) Recently (last decade), we stunk at spreading DEMOCRACY and lost our true American reputation along with it.
7) After 5 years we still can’t get the oil production to the pre-war levels & Iraq’s infrastructure is worse than before.
8) No – there was no Al Queda in there – but they are there now – so we are going to keep this going
Too many other to list – but it’s a great question.
P.S. Some of the figures I heard recently (Radio, various reading sources, so I don’t have exact #s or sources)…. but I hope that I’m not too far off.
