Making decisions to positively affect hundreds of millions of lives requires a certain detachment from the emotional aspects of issues.

In chess you guard your king. He is the most important player of the game. You also do everything you can to keep the enemy from reaching your back line. Pawns (foot soldiers) are used to block that line and provide a layer of defense.

The USA is the back line. Our major cities are the rooks, knights and bishops. DC is the king. You must maneuver the pawns to protect these pieces.

To do this effectively, one must keep the other player on the defense.

Afghanistan was a strategic success. It advanced deep into the heart of the enemies stronghold and put our pieces on the terrorists back line. Our incursion into Iraq was also a success. It was not the terrorists back line but was a place close enough to use as a power base to safely place pieces preparing for the next attack.

source:gamecolony.com

In this image it would be like controlling the 9 squares that comprise a4-a6 to c4-c6. As a base of operations, such provides access to the backline and the enemy has to first deal with threat there before it can go to your backline.

So now Iran, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine and all the places sympathetic to terror in the name of Islam have a clear and near area to attack.

Believing that had we not removed Saddam, things would be better is fallacious. Everywhere the US made an appearance, the terrorists and braindead fighters made a pilgrimage to attack Americans. This was true in Afghanistan & Iraq. And before we were there our ships were targeted when in foreign ports and NY and DC were targeted at home.

Any US flag is a target. Again, the answer is to place the flag away from your important pieces. Staying home doesn't change their anti-US philosophy or agenda. WTC bombing and then the attacks on 9/11 occurred when we were minding our own business. Staying home is just inviting you opponents pieces to strike you where you are most vulnerable.

It is unimportant if Iran becomes a Shiite theocracy and the Sunnis rebel. It is much better to have them fighting eachother than the US. It allows the US to exploit the clash to further gain SIGINT and HUMINT on both factions.

The taste of freedoms many Iraqi Shiites have already experienced will make them very unlike their Iranian counterparts.

The bases set up in Iraq and Afghanistan are the major tools we now can use to maintain air supremacy in the region and would be used if we ever have to take military action against Iran.

To return to chess terminology it means we now have a rook and a queen in position to strike the backline anytime we want. These other nations understand this as well. Iran defiance of the world is done full well understanding the sword of Damocles that now is positioned over its nuclear facilities and military installations.

They feel like the mouse being played with by the cat and they are understandably frustrated and full of blustery defiance.

Palestine and Israel could not have arrived at their current situation without the US presence as well -the wall helps too. While Hamas leadership is undesirable, it again allows internal strife to consume folks who would otherwise be lashing out at Israel.

There is no magic button that makes Islamic fanatics disappear. Flushing them out is far better than letting them remain concealed and seething in a region the US had almost no access to.

Insanity is not protecting America, insanity is found in doing nothing or following a failed policy of rhetorical finger wagging and 'policing' perpetrators of Islamoterror.

The game is one we have been drawn into, but if you are a player - regardless of how you got there - you play to win.

Islam must undergo a reformation or find itself at odds with the rest of the world. We need to keep them at arm's length while they do this and let them claw at our hand until all Islam is healthy and peaceful.

I have no doubts that history will vindicate the decisions made regarding Afghanistan and Iraq and the strategy employed to defend American cities from terror.