So many opinions... fascinating.

OK - here's my take on the whole thread.

Saddam Hussein was a cruel and despicable leader. He used force to keep Iraq and Iraqis on the course he chose. He used brutal and inhuman methods, including gassing and torturing people. Much of what he did, he justified by holding those killed or tortured or imprisoned as threats to his vision of Iraq. This vision included himself and his familiy members and cronies living in luxury. Many Iraqi citizens benefitted from his vision, with a fairly high standard of living, good infrastructure, education, health care, etc. (at least before sanctions and Gulf War I). A large but I think lesser number suffered greatly, and many died. In Saddam's Iraq, as far as I can determine, there was little crime that was not state sanctioned. State sanctioned crime was very significant, but banks were not robbed, museums were not looted, hospitals and libraries were not gutted.

Please note that I'm abbsolutely not saying that Saddam was a good guy, he was not. The things he did and the ways he did them were despicable.

There are many despicable rulers in the current world. Many have committed terrible atrocities against their citizens. Russia and China come to mind; many more were killed there than in Iraq. Many terrible things are still going on in a number of areas of the world.

Iraq is in a strategic location geographically and politically. It also has huge reserves of oil. It had a despicable leader and situation that made him weak in critical ways. Please note I am pointing out facts, not stating my opinion in this paragraph.

The US has the largest economy and the most powerful armed forces in the world, by a large margin. Not more than the rest of the world combined, but a lot more than the next several nations combined.

It is in the best interests of the US to have compliant governments in most if not all Middle East countries, especially those of strategic economic and political importance. By the US I mean here both the US government and the US corporate world. Some of the interests of the US are good for other countries and people, and some are not.

The US has the power to enforce it's will over many smaller nations, despite the objections of much of the rest of the world. This power is both military and economic.

Most countries, the US included, view their attitudes and morals as "the right ones". This applies to governments as well as individual citizens. Some are able to accept that others have the rights to their attitudes and morals.

The US (a very powerful country) has imposed it's will upon Iraq (a relatively weak country) by use of force. It has also imposed it's will upon the rest of the world as regards Iraq, whether by threats of force or of diplomatic and/or economic pressures.

The US government (and here I won't say "George W. Bush, because personally I don't think he has the brains to do that kind of thing on his own) has a great deal of power, in various ways, over it's citizens. It has used the threat of terrorist attacks to convince 78% (or whatever) of it's population that invading Iraq was a good thing to do. It used the same to convince citizens to give up many of their rights, to run out and buy duct tape and plastic sheeting, to buy gas masks. To think that going against the will of the UN was a good thing, to wreak havoc with international relations.

What are the motivations of the US for doing these things? Of course they are debatable and have been vigorously debated here and all over the US and the world.

My nominees (not necessarily in order):
1. To exert it's influence over a strategic (it hopes) area of the Middle East.
2. To weaken the influence of the UN, and at the same time strengthening it's own.
3. Sadly enough, as a military exercise.
4. To demonstrate to all and sundry it's military might in order to bring them in line.
5. To economically benefit some corporations.
6. To liberate the people of Iraq from an oppressive regime.

The results, IMHO (again not necessarily in order)
1. The UN will be weakened, and it's good programs along with it's not so good ones will suffer.
2. International relationships between western countires will be strained but not destroyed.
3. Terrorist activity against the US will increase.
4. Iraq will become fractured along religious and cultural lines, despite all efforts by the US.

There, I'm done.