1. The U.S could have had more material and troops to work with in Afghanistan, it may have made more of a difference. Also it is often easier to manage a one front war then a two front conflict.
The Taliban rebuilt themselves in Pakistan not Afghanistan. More material in Afghanistan makes zero difference to the Taliban reforming.
2. I agree, the Republicans might not get hammered in 2006 and 2008 elections.
3. The U.S economy may have not taken as hard a hit it has recently, long wars are always very costly.
The GOP was facing much more then Iraq in 2006. They were still suffering greatly from Bush's failed Socal Security push, a whole host of scandals, Katrina and the people generally being very tired of several years of one party rule in Washington.
As for 2008 the Iraq War did not cause the banks to make massive amounts of bad credit default swaps which almost brought down the whole financial system. It was going to happen Iraq war or not and party in power was going to get blamed for it.
Take away the Iraq War and Bush still gets re-elected in 2004. Come 2006 the GOP loses at least one house of Congress and the credit crunch and mortgage meltdown still happens and the democrat wins the White House and gains control of both Houses of Congress in 2008.
Last edited: