I found this blog while I was researching for my next podcast. It gives you a look at the Iraq war from the beginning to present. Altho I thought it was missing some things like war profiteering; it is a good quick look back that makes you realize how much we were lied to. After looking at this website I was sad thinking about how we had no justification to be in this war. I started to think about how we are starting to stop looking for Osama bin Laden; which I do not understand at all. I am a realist. I believe we need hard power as well as soft power to fix issues that effect us. I am a firm believer that we needed to use our military power, or hard power find Osama bin Laden, and punish him for 9/11. But instead we out sourced this job to war lords who let him get away. Thin he spider webbed his organization, so if we caught him his terrorist cell would live on. Instead of stopping the problem at the source we take our resources and attack Iraq. This is where soft power was in place political power, and guess what it was working just fine until we decided to use hard power, and over throw their government now we are in a mess. Right wingers say we are fighting them over there so we do not have to fight them over here. When I ask them why Afghanistan was not a good enough place to fight them. You know what they say? They say there is nothing there. I understanding what they are saying. They think if there was nothing to rebuild so they could have their no bid contracts. It was not worth it so we left Afghanistan hanging; we could have built that country up, caught Osama bin Laden, and stayed the corse in Afghanistan. But it just would not have been as profitable. I want to be wrong, but I just do not see it. Look at the highlights on this page also they outline even more issues that are affecting us.
http://www.thinkprogress.org/iraq-timeline