I belived that deposing Saddam was a good idea.
Still do.
I am starting to wonder if our follow through was adequite and thought through.
Al Queda took the power vacuum as an invitation,so that we had an oppurtunity to kill a bunch of those idiots. I don't know if that was intentional on our part in the first place.
Iran couldn't resist the oppurtunity to arms its catspaws and kill Americans , I don't even know whether this was expected or surprising to us.
Now we are leaving , I always knew we would leave , but I never and still don't know how much remnant we will leave , nor what sort of confusion our leaving will engender.
Saddam , for all his bluster, seemed a lot like a pushover. We have had a lot more trouble with the wannabe Saddams that sprang up after Saddam left town.
This suggests a diffrent and cheaper policy if we have occasion to do this sort of thing again. Depose the nasty ruler, then leave immediately.Let the chips fall where they may but tell the new nasty ruler that he is in no uncertain terms another pushover , so good behavior is a good idea.