"Everything we do (and I mean EVERYTHING), is excusable because the spark of democracy has been lit in the Middle East. No true conservative wants to admit we are doing anything wrong, because it is all in the name of a higher goal."

It sure is great that Iraq is no longer ruled Saddam or his sons. I think things going pretty much as planned, and I still think we will still have deal with Aghanistan for a longer term than Iraq. In a year or so we will probably have significantly less troops and miltary presence in Iraq, the nature of our presence in Iraq will depend largely on Iraqi politics- we could be completely out of Iraq in say 2 years or Iraq may want a relationship like we have with Turkey, so they Iraq could join US in possible joint miltary type operations and/or provide UN with blue helmets which are actually effective for peace keeping type operations [not fleeing from confrontation, not having their whorehouses using local 10 year old girls & boys].
Afghanistan will take much longer and it's likely we going to need to increase aid and security in coming years. Over long term Afghanistan will probably as significant for region than even compared to Iraq.

"(Not to mention that we didn't go to war for these higher goals, but that the reason we did, the WMD, never really mattered in the first place."

As I said before, Saddam violated his cease fire agreement. If he had not been so stupid and had followed the cease fire agreement we would not have invaded to country to change the regime.
Iran is currently doing the same mistake. The US will not let Iran violate it's international agreement in regards it's adherance to using nuclear energy for only peaceful purposes. You know if Iran *really* wants a nuke, the best way to do it is to become a real democracy. It would not be hard for them to do this, the leadership would merely need to do what it knows it should do. The Mullahs need to go back to their churches and let the real political leaders of the country run the country. The mullahs are unpopular and do not have the consent of the people of Iran. They are illegitment rulers of the country- this fact would not provoke a miltary response from the US, but couple this with acquiring nuclear weapon which is in violation of their international agreements, and we are going to have all the cards on the table- we will do what in our national interest.
With a democratic Iran, if Iran wants nuclear weapons, this is a possiblity through negotiations- changing their treaty agreements. But of course the better solution is to get to point of having entire region nuke free- which of course would include Israel. Iran having a nuke wouldn't be needed to get us to this arrangement- all it does it get it further away from this possiblity. It not a needed political chip for Iran- it's the opposite.