Ok, I want to play arm-chair quarterback for a moment.  Starting from after the invasion in 2003, what should the goal have been for the U.S.?  How should it have been achieved differently during both Bush's term and Obama's term?

Starting from after the invasion is a false premise.  What was the strategic logic in invading in the first place?If we accept the invasion as fact then once we toppled the regime we had a moral responsibility to replace it or facilitate the Iraqis coming up with one and then staying around long enough to ensure it would stick for at least a reasonable amount of time.  We did the first, but not the second because of moral collapse at home in the States.  All the whiny lefties did not think living up to our moral responsibility was worth the blood and treasure their cowardly behinds were not putting on the line anyway.  By God, if we are going to do something then we need to do it right and that is something America has signally failed to do since at least the Bay of Pigs.  That goes under both GOP and Dem admins.

So sounds like you'd have no problem dropping a nuke on them, right?  I mean if we're not concerned about morals and need to use brute force....  Ok, ok, I know you wouldn't suggest that.  I also agree that the Iraqis need to step up sooner or later and take charge of their own situation.  There's really only so much the U.S. can do.

Actually, I have suggested nuking them in all seriousness.  I would frame it as a demand and a threat at first though.  Something like a demand to non-terrorist Muslims (there are some), that they round up and take care of the extremists by a date certain and if they do not, we nuke a Middle Eastern city of our choice unless they do.  Further cities would be nuked for every terrorist attack that occurs after that until either terrorism stops or we turn the fertile crescent into a glass parking lot.  I don't even think that is extreme since the terrorists will happily nuke a western city if they ever get their hands on one.I don't think we have been ruthless enough when it comes to terrorism.  I think we have to be better at terror than they are.  I would actually track down and execute the families of suicide bombers.  How many more volunteers do you think they would have if we started doing that?  The only thing terrorists understand is terror so why should we not give it back in spades?I am not bloodthirsty, but I do think we should act decisively to make terrorism such a painful proposition that no-one will dare attack us.

I don't think the Iraqis are worth another drop of American blood either.  I just think it is a crying shame that the deaths and pain suffered by myself and friends of mine is being allowed to go down the toilet by the likes of the current president.  I lost friends over there and it pisses me off to see their deaths wasted.

COIN sure is a failure.

I have been saying that for years.  Years, I say and so have plenty of other people.  You just don't hear those voices in the MSM.

It is at the German war cemetery on the north side of the town of Vossenack in the Huertgen Forest.  It is the only monument set up by a US veterans organization dedicated to an enemy soldier in the world.  It was put up on the 50th Anniversary of D-Day by members of the 4th ID association.