Ten years ago today the United States' invasion of Iraq began. President George W. Bush announced, "This will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory." Well...
4,487 Americans killed, over 32,000 wounded. And for what? First we were told there were "weapons of mass destruction," the dreaded WMD, but that proved to be a chimaera (which is a fancy way of saying "lie"). Then we were told we were "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here." Then... Then we were just there, and it didn't really matter why any more, because now the whole place had gone to shit (thanks to us) and we couldn't very well leave, could we? Because then Iran (gasp!) would step in and take over.
So where are we, ten years later? Iraq is a nominally independent, nominally democratic country that is, in fact, ruled by a small cadre of well-connected political hacks, all on the take from the US. It's an American fief in all but name, and none of its neighbors see it as anything different. It remains a hugely unstable factor in an unstable region, and would quickly fall apart if not for the millions upon millions of dollars we continue to pour into it.
190,000 total lives lost (70% Iraqi civilians). That's the blood.
2.2 trillion—trillion—dollars. That's the treasure.
It wasn't worth it.