It was worth the effort in Iraq. We had a strong national security and economic reason to do so.
This was the first time we had done something like this in the Middle East. (Iran pre-revolution doesn’t count) As an attempted alternative to completely demolishing the country, leaving the people to live in ruins, creating a vacuum for another tyrant and leaving us with a black mark, I think it was absolutely the right thing to do.
Regardless of how Iraq looks in one or ten years, we can be as proud of what we did in Iraq as we are of what we did in Japan and Germany after WWII. As an American, I am damned proud of that legacy, as we all should be.
If this doesn’t work in Iraq, history will not be able to say we didn’t do the right thing there, and possibly plant a seed for the rest of the Middle East. Granted, it doesn’t look that way, but as a nation, we can live with ourselves.
That is, of course, my opinion. I understand why people would disagree with it, but I feel pretty strongly about it.