I feel the US and my own UK government acted in the interests of the Western nations by invading Iraq, terrible though alot of the consequences have been and inspite of the fact I was against the military action at the time.
Now I had better explain why I was against the military action hadn't I, and then why I feel regardless of my take on it such action could be justified.
I didn't believe the story about Sadam keeping weapons of mass destruction, mainly because he would know that by holding on to them he would have guaranteed his country being attacked, if you see what I mean.
I've used the analogy of the old Columbo catchphrase "There always has to be a motive"! If Sadam could have no motive for hanging on to his WMDs then unless he was crazy (and alot of people claimed that was the case, though I don't agree), there was no reason left for him to keep his weapons, and I didn't believe our leaders when they said he had kept them.
Beyond that I have a feeling that we in the West should allow other parts of the world to get on with managing their own business, where this is possible.
However, this brings me to the rub, I do appreciate that certain parts of the world or countries of the world, could become so unstable as to pose a threat to all around them, including ourselves.
US military might has been the one real guarantee of security the rest of the Western world has relied upon for a long time now. I doubt that the Iron Curtain would have come down if the USSR hadn't realised it wasn't able to compete in the global power stakes anymore.
The US asserting authority or its military prowess is perhaps inevitable in the face of petty and dangerous dictators - the temptation to use force when you possess so much of it must be very great.
Furthermore, and linked to what I've said already, our Western interests were probably served by the US and many allies taking military action to assert our authority. If the world can see this happening then global trade can function without hinderance knowing their is a real authority to look towards, or other global institutions can function on the same basis. It is this kind of thing that amounts to our interests in the West, or what I mean by it.
I am not a Neo-conservative, in fact I would class myself as a pretty wet liberal in most ways, but can nonetheless acknowledge that my interests are linked to everyone elses, albeit that there are some very unfortunate or desperately bad aspects to following our own interests in countries like Iraq.
There is a counter argument of course, that many better brains than my own ascribe to now, even some who voted for the war in our parliament, and are now saying we would have been better off if the war hadn't taken place (maybe they feel Iran could have been persuaded more easily to give up its nuclear programme).
One of the best examples of where the US and its allies invasion of Iraq produced a clear, positive result was the fact that Colonel Ghadafi gave up the nuclear programme on behalf of Libya. I doubt that would have happened in any other way, than by him being shown the West was prepared to use force.
President George W. Bush isn't particularly popular in the UK, but having said that the alternative candidates didn't appeal to some of us too well either, so perhaps some of us can see why you chose him. His hard nosed political craft probably has been effective in many situations, and his presentation to the UN before the Iraq war was very powerful (written by the best script writers in the world though it no doubt was).
So if you have a journalist in Iraq saying things like he can see reason for hope amongst all the carnage, then I wouldn't be too sceptical about his views. Alot of your troops do show themselves to be very decent guys, doing a job they believe in and for a US government or government system they still believe in.
I admit that some of the excesses we've seen as part of the war, do create a hollow feeling, but war is a terrible business and I'm not putting my own life on the line so should be careful about criticising those who do therefore.
How our forces can be withdrawn is very difficult to envisage, but there has been a series of debates this week on our Channel 4 TV station, and some pretty sound advice does seem to be forthcoming now. For example, don't set your aspirations too high, such as a Western style democracy or even a Western style economy, both these things have been said to be expecting too much at present, by some of the experts I've listened to.
I hope I've added to your debate - by the way this is more off topic that anything I've ever posted here isn't it!
Very best regards, Graham