They weren’t trying to get us into a war for the sake of having a nice war. We needed a presence in the ME and Iraq was/is the ideal location vis a vis Iran. It started to go downhill when Bush & Co. decided to do the liberal thing and Win Hearts And Minds and do some Nation building.
It started to go downhill when the Democrats decided they wanted the U.S. (and Bush) to lose. Thereby insuring that the Iraqi people couldn't trust us to finish the job.
If the 'Rats had kept their treasonous mouths shut, the fighting would've been over three years earlier. And thousands of lives -- both our troops' and Iraqis' -- would've been saved.