They were doing well until they invaded Iraq.
Do you understand why we went into Iraq? And the timeline we are looking at? Because in reading your reply, I don't think you do. You'll recall that right after 9-11 the usual suspects started screaming "Root Causes..Root Causes..we must address the root causes". Well that's what we are doing addressing (one of) the root causes...lack of freedom. And yes it's already paying benefits, if in no other ways than Lybia giving up their nuke program, Syria leaving Lebanon, a debate being held in the Arab world over just is happening. Syria understands how important Iraq is, Iran understand just how important Iraq is, OBL unerstands just how important Iraq is, the question is why don't you (no flame intended)
The alternative? A containment strategy.
You do of course know that when we invaded Saddam was 6 months away from getting rid of the sanctions. as for containment...three words Oil For Food.
Were mistakes made..sure. Name me one war where mistakes were not made.
tha battle for Iraq is not a movie where the jhero saves the day in 2 1/2 hours and rides off into the sunset. This is real life, and big time historic stuff.
Think Cold war and it's 1953, that's the timeline we are looking at.
NEOCON BUMP
Yes, but one mistake was HUGE. Dissolving of Iraqi army and ruling party. It should have been reformed and purged instead. The analogy would be if USA dissolved German and Japanese police, and administration after WWII and tried to create it from the scratch by young soldiers who do not know German or Japanese and by trigger happy contractors.
The key illusion was that Iraq is a blank page on which the perfect new society can be painted according to the millenarian Puritan dream. This supposed blankness was a projection of ignorance.