Even I failed to see the blunder of invading Iraq at the time. That was my first major error in gauging geo-political impact of events. In 20-20 hind-sight, it is now obvious that if Saddam & sons were left alone, there would be no ISIS, no Libya invasion by Obama/Hillary, no Islamic takeover in Yemen, and no civil war in Syria. Not to mention loss of blood and Treasure for United States with borrowed money from China.
In your credit you like me and many others learned from the mistakes of Iraq. None of the Neo-cons learned from that disaster at all. And left spent years attacking the war only to fallow the same pattern of insanity once in power.