Five years of blood - 3,990 U.S. soldiers killed, including two who perished in a midday bomb attack in downtown Baghdad just yesterday, and more than 29,000 seriously wounded.

Five years of treasure - $800 billion officially, including President Bush’s pending request for additional tax dollars, and probably closer to a total of $3 trillion, according to Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz.

Five years of shocking failure and awesome incompetence.

It was a year ago that I returned from Iraq, where I had been serving as a civilian. I didn’t support the original invasion, but I held out hope that we could help Iraq build the foundation of a democratic system to justify the heartbreaking personal investments of our military families and the financial sacrifice of our taxpayers.

I was wrong.

Read the rest of the article at the Burnt Orange Report.