[thekid]

My take is that the decision to invade Irak was a horrible one. It will be a major burden on US foreign policy for the next generation if not more. It was not done for post 9/11 security reasons. 9/11 provided the administration the opportunity to carry out the invasion, not the reason. I'm not sure of why the administration was so bent on taking down Saddam Hussein's regime, but I suspect it was much more ideological than anything else (I think they firmly believed they could use the US stance as the world's sole superpower to forcefully "democratize" a Middle-Eastern country causing a domino effect of democracy in the region). While achieving this would have been of tremendous benefit to US (and Western) interests, it was really obvious that an invasion would much more lead to an increase in Islamic fundamentalism, hatred of the US and resistance to the US model than anything else.

I think the invasion was one of the worst mistakes made by the US in recent memory and that the US public was made to be fools by an administration that lied and manipulated it (albeit the public -and media- does bear much responsibility for leaving their sense of objective analysis at the door the day those planes hit).

Nonetheless, what is done is done. Leaving now would most probably leave Irak in civil war. The Iranian Shiite regime would most probably help bolster to power a radical Shiite Iraqi government. The US would have (i), in Muslim public opinion, suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the jihadists and (ii) helped create a radical Islamic government allied with Iran in their hatred of the US. This cannot be allowed to happen.

The war was started for absolutely absurd reasons. It's effects are however of very important national security concerns. I believe the US was sucked into a stupid conflict by the Bush administration, but is now stuck with it. The worst thing to do now is pull out. The US is stuck with this. And, this, will last for more than a decade (probably several decades). Thank the Bush administration for the situation.