Although many on these boards would disagree, it seems obvious to me now (and I'm talking nose-on-your-face-obvious) that the war in Iraq was a mistake of almost inconceivable tragedy.

But before this conclusion fell like an anvil on my head, I searched high-and-low for some way to justify the war to myself, even as the odds of finding WMD dropped to insignificance. I tried in earnest to buy into the notion that since we'd ostensibly liberated an oppressed people, the WMD issue really wasn't of any consequence. Man, did I try.

But still, there sat that pesky nose-on-my-face.

There was never any real urgency on our part to go into Iraq to liberate the people. There was no countdown clock ticking away the seconds before democracy had to be installed in the Middle East.

The urgency came from the notion that Saddam had massed WMD that he might either use himself or give to terrorist organizations.

We can try to say that only in hindsight, or only after a years' occupation, are we able now to make the determination that the suspected WMD don't in fact exist. Unfortunately though, that's not the truth. There were voices aplenty telling us to slow down, telling us that war was not called for at that juncture. The UN was telling us...other governments were telling us...many people right here on this board were telling us. They had gleaned the truth, we hadn't.

What, other than invade, should we have done?

Trust the UN.

More: support the UN, lend it our weight, pay our UN dues! Contribute, rather than disparage. Participate in good faith as a member of the global community rather than dismissing our friends and allies. Trust that the world will still spin even if we don't always get our way. Listen to people even when we don't like what we hear. Recognize that there's very little we can do that doesn't have an impact on lives half a planet away, and so our government has to be more sensitive to foreign voices than most other governments have to be. Come to terms with the fact that if we want to see big changes in the rest-of-the-world (ie, less hatred for all things American), we may have to institute big changes right here at home--in ourselves, in the way we do things, in the ways we relate to other peoples.

Become a kinder, gentler nation...for real.