re: Bush in 2007 delivered eerily accurate warning about Iraq unrest

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"I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said, as if to reassure a dubious public. "It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partners’ forces on the ground." That's a relief to those of us who don't want to see another 5,000 American soldiers shipped home in body bags, several times more with missing limbs or brain injuries, and a years-long epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance abuse.

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But if America didn't successfully eliminate violent extremists in Afghanistan or Iraq even with tens of thousands of boots on the ground, if extremists in those countries began to gain more power as soon as Americans left, if we didn't manage to successfully train their armies even during a years-long deployment of our best forces, why do we think that a foe Chuck Hagel characterizes as the most formidable we've seen in the War on Terror can be beat with airstrikes and a few hundred advisers?

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