Opinions have sure changed in 7 years

Seven long years ago, I was called a traitor for my opinions. My crime was thus: I doubted that an almost entirely landlocked Middle Eastern country with low force projection posed an existential threat to the United States. I didn't believe the allegations of ties to then-recent terrorist attacks on American soil.

The claims that the war would be over quickly, that it would be paid for via oil revenue, that an active insurgency would fold within weeks, that U.S. troops would be welcomed as heroes - I put no stock in any of them. I was hardly alone in these opinions, yet for them I was considered weak and unpatriotic. I was called soft on defense, likened to Neville Chamberlain, and publicly derided by members of Congress and policy experts.

Columnists labeled my doubt as treason, and the media openly wondered to what extent I hated America and the military. I was told that I had forgotten the lessons of 9/11, and that I should just shut my mouth and fall in line.

The Iraq war has cost us more than we can measure. The death toll is only half the story, and many of the injured will never fully recover. The war divided us politically, drained our treasury and fed the worldwide narrative that we cannot distinguish between various groups of Muslims.

Meanwhile, Iraq suffered greatly, and that in itself is a gross understatement; hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced, ruined infrastructure, and a dysfunctional government.

Seven long years ago, I was called a traitor for my opinions. Patriotism, it would seem, is cheering as your country makes an irreparable mistake.

John Boske Jr.

Bartlett