No, we entered this war in accordance with the Bush Doctrine, which stated that we would destroy regimes who continued to harbor, train or fund terrorists. Saddam was doing all three, and that's aside from his laundry list of offensive moves against the United States.
And BTW, if you think that the Iraqi people don't have it better than they did under Saddam, you weren't paying attention pre-war. Your oil price comment also indicates you have no clue in the world why oil prices are high.
What “oil price” comment did I make?
I didn’t say it was the only goal, but it certainly is one of the goals and has become the over-riding goal. The war would have been fought completely differently if it weren’t a major goal from the beginning and became a priority. It could have been over by now. We lost a little over 100 lives in the taking of Iraq and 3900 since, all for objectives that are non-military. Even if you discount completely, all of the deaths resulting from the humanitarian missions of this war, even the objective of denying Al Qaeda a stonghold in Iraq is not an objective our military will ever be able to achieve in any sustainable way without bombing strongholds without the regard for collateral damage and that is not going to happen. A temporary decrease in violence during surges......yeah, that is a no brainer.
Iraq has deep rooted tribes and sects that are in opposition to its govt. I always use the gangs in America analogy because I can’t think of another way to explain my point. Imagine if our gangs here in America represented the same percentage of our population as these tribes and sects in Iraq do in Iraq. Can you imagine the tactics our police force and even military would have to resort to, in order to crush them permanently? And that is here in our country with well established law and order, in a civilization where the vast majority of our people do not identify with gang members or are tied to them by any ideology whatsoever. In Iraq, people are tied together by Islam and that is significant. Not to mention all of the other dynamics that make their culture very different than ours.
Which is why this strategy is never going to work. Even if it did, Iraq is one country, among many, in this WOT. This idea of regimes in other countries suddenly giving up all their power they hold over their populations via the use of Islam to control people, because Iraqis are happier, is ridiculous.
I never once said that things are not better for Iraqis than under Sadam. There foundation for law and order however, is still based on Islamic principles. The people did vote for Islamic clerics over a secular govt. I’m sure the women still being subjugated don’t feel like life is much better.