First of all, jg, by saying that the gamble was that we could create a democracy in an Arab nation, you are admitting that bush lied to us by giving us several other reasons for invading Iraq. “Bush clearly laid (the domino theory) out as the gameplan.” Maybe after it became obvious that there were no WMDs he did. But not while he was convincing everyone we should invade.
Second, there was plenty of evidence that trying to turn a country with the culture of Iraq’s into a democracy by force wouldn’t work. The bush administration chose to ignore that evidence and thousands of our soldiers are now dead because of it. To assume that we can invade a country and it will turn into a democracy is ridiculous. To not have known that beforehand put the bush administration in the minority.
Third, even if our plan of creating democracy which would magically create other democracies (explain how that would happen, please), what would we get out of that? “Democracy would provide an outlet for addressing the rightful resentment of the Arabs against their governments.” As if anybody in the bush administration gives the tiniest bit of a damn about the people of the middle east. Less terrorism? Maybe. If the democracy dominoes actually fell. Even then maybe not. But if we can’t create one democracy despite all the force of the mightiest military in the history of humankind, then what makes you think Iran and Syria will magically turn into democracies on their own?
So, to answer your question, the war was a mistake because we’ve killed thousands of Americans, maimed tens of thousands of Americans, spent trillions of Americans’ dollars, angered the world, created more and angrier terrorists, and all for the pursuit of a goal that only one who possesses the arrogance and ignorance of the current president actually thought could be accomplished.
