There were valid reasons for going into Iraq, IMO. I always thought the main one was just to create another victory against a radical Islamic state, and thus another victory in the WOT, another demonstration of why you don't mess with America. A demonstration that would go a long ways toward discouraging other terror groups from perpetrating another 9/11 or worse. Much worse is the fear, I believe. Saddam was a clear danger to the civilized world, so taking him out was something of an obvious step. I'm sure Bush hoped for an entirely new face on the Middle East once this was accomplished.
Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, probably politically correct reasons, irregular radical Islamics, some allied with Al Qaeda, have been able to resist our forces, and we are now on the verge of retreat. I hope W can pull a rabbit out of his hat now, because if he can't, this adventrue will have, instead of cowing terrorists, given them a great victory. Instead of being safer from them, we'll be in greater danger. Instead of a more pacified Middle East, we'll have a nuclear one, possibly dominated by our enemies, the Iranian mullahs. We'll be looking forward to WMD's being set off in our cities, with all the ramifications that come with that, wrecked economy, possible martial law, end of our way of life, etc.
W's the president, so he'll have to bear most of the blame, or get most of the credit, for whatever consequences ensue.
I agree with most of what you wrote. I don't blame Bush for the decision to go in. Unfortunately for Republicans, Saddam wasn't close to possessing nuclear weapons, there weren't significant WMD stocks, and the Administration was unable to pacify the country. If this wasn't a democracy, a Putin could spend $100B qa year and abscorb 1K KIA and 7K WIA a year indefinitely. Fortunately, this is a democracy. The American people are prepared to delegate considerable authority to a Commander in Chief if he's successful. The current stalemate isn't working and isn't likely to be crowned with success, given a lack of political support, a limited ability to sustain the current deployment millitarily, and the lack of an Iraqi nation state. Bush can't build a democracy in Iraq because the Shiites and Kurds -- perhaps 85% of the opulation -- want no part of an Iraqi state. Only our Baathist enemies want an Iraq. Iraqi Kurdistan is a democracy, and a good ally of the U.S. I would give the Shiites, Kurds, and Sunnis a reasonable period to federate or separate, train an Iraqi central army if the people want it (which I doubt), and redeploy our major combat units there to Kurdistan, Kuwait and home