The US had two very important, STRATEGIC national interests in Iraq...one of which even the pacifist Jimmy Carter was abe to discern and articulate with the Carter Doctrine: Oil must flow from the Persian Gulf to open markets and the US is willing to engage in existential war to ensure it does.
And the second was to ensure a crazy dictatorship did not maintain a stockpile of WMD that could be distributed to America's enemies. Alas, we failed to acquire those weapons and they probably went to Syria and then to ISIS.
But the motive was correct.
“But the motive was correct.”
As yes the old, “but we had good intentions” statement. Bullhocky, Saddam was not crazy just very ruthless and what we did was protect those that fund groups like the ISIS (hint, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait). What we did was destabilize the entire region because of a grudge match between Saddam and Bush Jr. You can try and rationalize this but the evidences speaks louder than any poor excuses you can give.