Iraq crisis: Tony Blair rejects 'bizarre' claims 2003 invasion caused current situation

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34. You might find this interesting:

Can Obama pull a Nixon with the Iraq crisis?

For the United States, the Iraq war ranks as the most consequential foreign policy failure since Vietnam. In neither instance did U.S. forces succumb to outright defeat, of course. In both, with victory proving elusive, Americans wearied of the fight and simply walked away, abandoning the people for whom their troops had ostensibly fought.

In terms of outcomes, however, these two conflicts differ in crucial respects. In Vietnam, we quit and got away with it. Lyndon Johnson's recklessness in expanding the war found its counterpart in Richard Nixon's cynicism in ending it. When after a mere three years of "peace with honor" the Republic of Vietnam collapsed, Americans shrugged.

In Southeast Asia, many people — Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians — paid (and continue to pay) for the havoc that the United States wreaked there. By comparison, even taking into account the 58,000 American dead, this country paid next to nothing. Strategically, the United States got off scot-free. Committing to memory the war's canonical lesson — "No more Vietnams" — Americans moved on. That was that.

Iraq offers a striking contrast. Considerably smaller in scale than Vietnam, America's misadventure in Iraq has already given rise to vastly larger strategic implications. There, recklessness has found its counterpart not in cynicism but in an unfathomable combination of naivete and listlessness. The recklessness was that of George W. Bush. The naivete and listlessness — grandiose talk seldom translating into concerted action — have become the hallmarks of Barack Obama's approach to statecraft.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0615-bacevich-iraq-failure-vietnam-20140615-story.html#navtype=outfit