I guess we should have let Saddam get nukes right, because he just wanted to be our friend and protect Christians like his fellow socialist Assad, right?
Remember the no-fly zone? The one that cost a few billion dollars a year, and erased Saddam's air force and air defenses? That was how we ensured Saddam was unable to gin up another Osirak reactor. The problems with the invasion of Iraq are - (1) we have installed a Shiite dictator wannabe (Maliki), (2) we spent $100b a year, (3) we lost 5000 dead GI's, (4) we spent political capital that could have been used to destroy an actual nuclear program (Iran's), prevent Obamacare, and so on and (5) we did not actually get a permanent base in Iraq - the Iraqi electorate chose to elect politicians who decided to expel US forces from the country.
Bush likened the invasion of Iraq to lancing and draining an abscess (left over from Desert Storm). In retrospect, it's been more like opening an artery. $1T and 5000 dead GI's later, we've been kicked out of the country, and a Shiite dictatorship is about to replace the Sunni one.