It was a bad idea from the start - driven by arrogance, incompetence and ignorance. This debacle was completely unnecessary and unjustified. The lives 2,218 American soliders have been wasted.

Three years in, hopes fade for Iraq, neighbors

By Warren P. Strobel and Hannah Allam
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Three years after the United States invaded Iraq in pursuit of a freer, more stable Middle East, the country's deepening ethnic conflict is spreading tension across Iraq's borders, fueling terrorism and nurturing gloom about the future.

President Bush cited Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and ties to international terrorism — neither of which turned out to exist — when he ordered a pre-emptive war that began March 19, 2003. He predicted payoffs for the wider Middle East: spreading democracy, deterred enemies, more secure oil flows, a less hostile environment for Israel.

Little of that has happened, at least not yet.

Instead, said officials and analysts in the United States, Arab countries, Israel and Europe, the invasion has produced a vortex of unintended consequences.

Militancy is on the rise. Terrorists are using Iraq as a training base and potential launch pad for attacks elsewhere, according to U.S. officials and documents. Democratic reform remains largely stymied.

More...

We Americans will be paying the price for George Bush's recklessness for decades.