They were no more a grave and gathering threat than Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc.
Iraq had positioned itself as a grave and gathering threat. You should thank God that Saddam had everyone in the world fooled, or we would be looking at about 10,000 body bags. Let us hope that Iran and Syria are equally as puffed up about their military prowress as Iraq was, since eventually we will need to either reform them from the outside or defeat them on the battlefield.
I hate to tell you this, but the war on terrorism has been effectively moved from Afghanistan to Iraq because we kicked the pants off the Taliban. The reason we are losing troops right now is not because we did not accomplish out objectives in Iraq, but because the terrorists are flocking into Iraq from all over the world in order to attack America and Americans. Our enemy in Iraq is Al Queda.
Thank God we are fighting them there and not here.
> "They were no more a grave and gathering threat than Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc." <
True, but none of those other countries were the subject of multiple UN resolutions that provided the rationale for invasion. The threat from Iraq differed from the others only in degree, not in intent. And the threat level from both Pakistan and Syria has been substantially reduced since our action in Iraq. Yes, individuals and small groups still make a lot of noise, but no longer with overt support of their governments.