Active war
Tom, the active war as you call it is, as far as I know it, not between us and the Iraqis but instead between factions of Iraq themselves. Most of our casualties are simply the result of being in the middle of it all.
Call it what you like, but a substantial part of the world will breathe a collective sigh of relief over us suddenly coming to our senses. That majority of world citizens would be wise then to regain the respect we used to command in the foreign policy arena.
For those opportunists around the world that see us as weaker because our democracy and rule of law was suddenly rekindled, all I can say is "consider the source".
Art