It is too early to make a historical judgment on whether it was right or wrong to go into Iraq. (I am not discussing the moral right or wrong, but the policy right or wrong.) That will come with time. We won't know whether our national security and foreign policy were enhanced or degraded by our invasion, over the long term. It will depend on whether Iraq comes out of the current chaos a stable, pro-western, nation or it fails. Only time will tell.

What we can judge is what we did immediately after the invasion. History will judge our post invasion efforts to have been incompetent at best, criminal at worst. The U.S. Government made a difficult situation even more difficult by instituting stupid policies that alienated the population of Iraq, by not understanding realities on the ground and refusing to understand them, by not listening to people who could help, and by allowing ideology to supersede logic and practicality. We made it harder, we needlessly killed Americans and Iraqis by our arrogance and stupidity.