A failure to think

Five years after he launched it, George Bush's invasion of Iraq looks even more disastrous than it did at the end of the first year. Not only did it uncover no weapons of mass destruction. The invasion has led to a collapse in millions of ordinary Iraqis' personal security, producing a human rights nightmare and annual rates of killing that dwarf the atrocities of Saddam Hussein's three decades of power.

The damage to the United States has been enormous. As well as the loss of around 4,000 soldiers' lives, America's image and reputation in the Middle East have been severely harmed. For Bush and the neocons, the invasion has brought political defeat. Their project for Iraq to become a secular, liberal, pro-western bastion of democracy lies in ruins. The country is run by a narrow-minded group of Shia Islamists with close control over a sectarian army and police force. Many of them are linked to Iran.

As a result, Bush is now forced to run around the Arabian states along the Persian Gulf in an effort to build an anti-Iranian alliance and find a pretext for keeping a strategic presence in the region.

Sunni Arab revulsion at the murderous tactics of al-Qaida in Iraq, as well as the current "surge" of extra American troops, have helped to produce a welcome drop in al-Qaida's murders of Iraqi civilians and American forces, but it has to remembered that al-Qaida was never in Iraq before the invasion. A successful reduction in al-Qaida's power cannot outweigh all the harm Bush's war has caused to Iraqis.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_steele/2008/01/a_failure_to_think.html

and how many better futures have been foreclosed by this pointless, useless clusterfuck.

We've added 30,000 more troops, so now after 5 years 4,000 US deaths and half a trillion dollars, al Qaeda terrorism in Iraq has been somewhat reduced.

Not much of a success, considering there was NO al Qaeda terrorism in Iraq before we invaded.

Before we invaded, Iraq was ruled by a secular dictator who was Iran's staunchest foe. At great cost, we've put Iran's Shiite brethren in control of Iraq's government.

How can ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN still argue that invading Iraq was a good idea?