Did it help to invade Afghanistan? Yes, Al-Qaeda was disrupted and dispersed, and the leader who was majorly responsible for enabling it to be an organized international threat was eliminated. To the extent they still remain, they are not even a shadow of what they were. We were after Al-Qaeda.

Then, we tried nation building. No better results than the British or Soviets before us. We should have left. The Taliban would then be in control either way, but they are a domestic problem, not international. Suffering no matter what. But, we would certainly have suffered less if we'd had brains enough to leave sooner.

I know you refer to the 2003 war. That was a result of the 1991 war. Did you not understand the connection? He did not have weapons of mass destruction, but he used his Republican Guard to attack Iran, and invade Kuwait. And he had planned on continuing into Saudi Arabia. As long as Hussein was in power, and had the Guard, he was a potential threat to the region (and the Saudis knew it full well. They hosted our stay in the years between Desert Storm and the 2003 war. We had expected to withdraw, but the failure of the first war "detained" us.) Like I said, sorry we tried. The situation would be better with Hussein in power.

In 2022, Russian forces were on the ground in the region. We would have threatened to bring in our forces if he acted the way our intelligence indicated. He would have responded that it would go nuclear. We were supposed to call his bluff or something? You indicate he was unstable, and that we should have challenged him more. Stop wondering. There would have been nuclear war, just as he would have promised had we issued a stronger threat, then sent in our forces when he ignored it. I can't apologize enough to you that we did not in fact bring about the Apocalypse.

Appreciate your clarification.