Veteran Opens Up About Costs of Iraq

A Marine reserve colonel has some excellent straight talk about whether or not Iraq was "worth it".

He knows his Marines fought with honor and tried their best to perform incredibly difficult tasks in an austere and dangerous land — instructing Iraqi security forces, securing supply routes, keeping a tenuous peace among Sunnis and Shiites. Smith said it was a privilege for him to serve with such courageous men.

But Smith doesn't blunt his criticism of politicians and military planners who invaded Iraq and kept American troops there for more than six years.

"If someone says we were fighting a war, I'll break out the military manuals and challenge that," said Smith, 48. "We engaged in combat operations, but under the tenets of warfare we were not fighting a war, therefore we were lacking a mission objective. Then you have to ask what was the criteria for mission success? No one could tell me then, and they can't tell me now."