Sins of the Father

The two biggest drains on US resources under George W Bush are the Afghan and Iraq wars.

First, Afghanistan. In 1989, the first year of his father's Presidency, the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan. The US had supported the Afghan rebels, providing over $1 billion in support, but after the USSR withdrew, they lost interest. Instead of contributing just a small fraction of the money they spent killing Soviets, they spent nothing. As a result, extremists took over, forming the Taliban government that was toppled by the later US invasion. See the recent film "Charlie Wilson's War" if you want to learn more about this.

Then, Iraq invaded Kuwait. A UN backed coalition of forces eventually kicked the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. Before this happened, the US helped incite Iraqi citizens to rebel against Saddam Hussein. Again, after Kuwait had been liberated, the US lost interest. As a result, most opponents to Saddam Hussein wound up dead. Those who didn't naturally picked up a certain distrust to the US. Result, Iraq was invaded after Afghanistan, costing yet more, damaging the US and its' allies in international opinion, and could probably have been done for less cost, in money as well as people, if the US had followed through with its' promises.

What do you think?