Teribus ...Your obsession with minutia...(which is more of a tactic that an obsession in your case), obscures the bigger picture.
I have no intention of being drawn into a meaningless argument over unverifiable "facts", but can you seriously ask "What are these disasters for the West?"

In Iraq America and their allies have shown the world that they are not invincible. They have been defeated, as they were in Vietnam.
Of course death rates for allied troops have been much less than for the insurgents, as in Vietnam. This is to be expected but never the less they have been defeated again and this time as they scramble to their escape helicopters they leave behind an enemy a hundred times more dangerous than the peasants of the Viet Cong.
An enemy which we by our greed and stupidity have strengthened and made more resiliant...Ake