Quote from achilles28:
Your one dimensional thought speaks volumes.
America should have shunned Saddam since day#1.
No military sales or support.
No WMD manna from heaven.
No satellite intel for war against the Iranians.
Left em the fuck alone.
That would have left him without WMD's, and his people, a much bigger shot at procuring their own freedom.
But that wasn't the point, was it?
Easy to play Monday morning quarterback and try to appear smart with the information we now have. In real time, we played the hand we were dealt as best we could, and when we saw our mistake (years later) we went in to fix it, twice (1st and 2nd Iraq wars). Don't forget, back then, early Saddam days, we also had the Soviets to worry about, the situation was much more multidimensional, right? But, we dealt with them too, no complaints. That's the real world, we spoke our mind, did our thing, and the world noticed our determination and listened with envy to what we had to say and do. Some of them helped, some others opposed us but with dignity, not the pathetic "I told you so" baby chatter our enemies are spewing now.
The net result is Saddam is out and Iraq is free, the whole region is breathing easier these days. Yes, there's still some loose ends but, despite their bravado, the Iranians have been warned and will think twice before doing anything too stupid.
Why do we have to revisit this every time? Americans won, Bush accomplished his main objective, the end, stop whining and deal with it. Try to get Obama elected. But, if he does get elected, chances imo are 1000:1 he'll continue the same policy in Iraq because it makes sense for us and the Iraqis and our friends in the region. He'll just fabricate some lie or other (he's an expert at that... like, I never said we'll leave immediately, just give it a year or five) and play along. We need a stable Middle East and we'll get it, we're heavy handed in our foreign policy, which is unfortunate for those of us dreamers who would rather have peace.