ARTICLE: 'Colin Powell talks Iraq in Aspen: Reduction of troops inevitable, says former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff," By Scott Condon, Vail Daily, July 4, 2008

Now there's God's honest truth.

We did not run out of gear nor money in Iraq. We ran out of quality people, whom we burned out. I hear this all the time from commanders.

The Surge was hugely costly in this regard. Was it worth it? Petraeus may have just pulled it off, despite the lack of any accompanying diplomatic surge.

But it does leave us--just as inevitably--with a nuclear Iran as a byproduct (my argument since the fall of 04).

Would it have been nice not to have burned out the force so?

Sure, but you live with your choices (Iraq instead of Iran or North Korea) and your mistakes (Iraq postwar until 2007).

This is the essence of the Bush-Cheney legacy: By screwing up Iraq for so long, we're left with nuclear Iran (still disputed) and North Korea (basically sanctified now by Bush)..