Yes, getting rid of Saddam Hussein would have been a mitzvah--if we had not replaced him with a chaotic mess that was, for half a decade at least, significantly worse than being ruled by Saddam Hussein.
Duncan Black wonders aloud:
Eschaton: At Least The War Is Over: Sort of, anyway.
After all these years I still have no idea what it was all about.
Even at the time conservatives would occasionally admit that the WMD rationale was horseshit. It was as if each had their own individual Great Game reason for it. There were as many reasons for the Iraq war as there were supporters of it.
I suppose, ultimately, it came down to blowing up brown people and pissing off liberals. So it was quite a success, really.
Certainly the national security of the United States has been harmed by the adventure. Iran is no longer contained by Iraq. And there are an awful lot more people in the world who have very good reason to hate America.
