It didn't have to be this way
"About 2.6 million Americans deployed to both wars, and more than 1.7 million are now veterans.
About 1 million have sought medical care from the VA, nearly 300,000 of them for post-traumatic stress disorder, a disease the scientific panel says can be associated with surviving a roadside bomb attack or witnessing its aftermath.
About 32,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been diagnosed with brain damage, according to the VA."
We could have finished that job in the first three months with few casualties but we had a 'war president' wannabe and a neocon Chickenhawk VP who had other ambitions.