in my mind, the iraq war has always been about long-term benefits.
the threat from iraq wasn't that they were going to attack us. it was that they were going to help someone attack us.
the benefits of iraq, if there actually turn out to be any at all, will be in 5 or 10 years,
when hopefully iraq is a stable democracy,
and one less country we have to worry about helping people kill us.

three major things i would change looking back now:
1) don't disband the iraqi army.
do the best you can weeding out the bad apples, but don't just fire everyone.
all it did was create many thousands of militarily trained unemployed people who hate us.
and it meant starting from scratch with people who, if they were good soldiers, would've already been in the army.
security would probably be a lot better if the original iraqi army had been left intact.
2) the agonizingly long lead up to the war.
a year and a half.
1 and 1/2 years for our enemy to get ready for an attack they knew was coming.
one reason i know Bush isn't the unilateral-dictator everyone says he is.
if he were, we wouldn't have waited a year and a freekin' half to invade.
we would've had troops in iraq a couple of months after 9/11.
he spent way too much time trying to gather support from the international community.
3) don't stake so much on the iraqi people's desire for freedom and democracy.
they should want those things, but they don't.
or, at least, not enough of them seem to want it badly enough.
assume from the beginning that we're going to be fought from all sides, the people in between won't care one way or the other, and plan accordingly.
no roses and parades.

so five years out? 'no' , the war's not worth it.
yet

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