How about this is such a mess that the best we can hope for is to defeat ISIS, leave a semblance of stability and walk out of a problem that we cannot solve - which is why you have to despise Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons for ever getting us in the mess in the first place.
A few screamed “Morons” when Daddy Bush got us in there. The USSR had collapsed and a new neverending world conflict was necessary. We still dance to the tune of the World Bank and the Military_Industrial Complex. Getting involved in the ME is a guaranteed loser and will involve us forever in the unending tribal shifting hatreds.
You are leaving out a bunch of history. Bush 1 needed to take care of Iraq, but he quit before it was done. We didn’t give him the chance and Clinton did nothing because of his peace dividend and other interests. It was copiously documented that Saddam supported World Trade Center 1, supported and celebrated 9-11, kept and hide proscribed materials. The UN weapons inspectors were finding almost something of everything when Saddam kicked them out in 1998.
Had we not deposed Saddam, it is my opinion that he would have had a nuclear bomb well before Iran and North Korea.