Invasion of Iraq

[comic boy]

Given what we now know it would be interesting to hear what you think.
My view was that it was a combination of all of the above driven by a desire by both Bush and Blair to make a grand gesture.

[PerkinsRooster]

I vote regime change.

I think the neocons had their eyes on Iraq from day 1 (ie. January 2000), and 9/11 was the perfect excuse to execute a plan they had been working on for a decade.

The idea was to "install" a democratically elected freindly administration in Iraq in order to put the squeeze on Iran and Syria. With a base in Iraq the U.S. could take control (geo-politically at least) of the mid-east without any help from their "friends", the Saudi's.

I'm not saying the goal was necessarily a bad one, but it's all screwed up now obviously, with the ball almost completely in Iran's court. I agree with Tom Friedman, who wrote in The World is Flat, that while we have to support progressive change in the mid-east, we can't do it for them. They have to do it for themselves, otherwise it won't stick. For example, even Iran was looking like a country that was getting more progressive, until they saw the Americans move in next door and did a complete 180 turn.

By using force many in the mid east will now reject the very changes that need to be made over there (democracy, rights for women, free trade with the west), for the simple reason that "the Americans can't tell us what to do."

Somewhat simplistic perhaps, but it's my current theory.

PR