Don't we have to wait until we see whether democracy takes root in the Middle East outside of Israel?

The only real problem I have with this statement is that wasn't how the war was sold to the American people. The war was sold on 1) WMDs, 2) links to Al Qaeda, and 3) Saddam's a really bad guy. Only one of these was true, and more evidence comes out every day that the Bush Administration knew this by the time the war started.

Any future results of course have to be balanced against the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis that paid for it with their life. I would agree, though, that it is still possible that we will look back on this as a good move, even if done for the wrong reasons.

I opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and I opposed our withdrawal from Iraq in 2005 or 2006. I think that events have proven me right on both scores.

I'll go along with the latter, but I think the jury's still out on the former. Don't we have to wait until we see whether democracy takes root in the Middle East outside of Israel? The changes that had to be wrought on such a dysfunctional dictatorship in such a dangerous place were not going to be painless for anyone involved, and as we are reminded every day when it comes to the economy and nationalized health care, we can't afford just to do nothing. There have been other changes that have happened as well because of this such as Qaddafi's giving up his quest for WMD, or the ascension of Barack Obama which is undoubtedly one of the biggest consequences of the liberation of Iraq.

I understand and respect the arguments made against the liberation of Iraq, but it still seems far too early to me to be so glib about saying it was obviously the wrong thing to do.