I agree, too many years and too many lives. But I still think it is odd, that you can't understand what the initial mission was meant to be. Before we could enter a country (remember that Saddam threw the inspectors out) to find these weapons, we would have to defeat his military. We did that in short order. That was "mission accomplished". The length of the war and lives lost, was due to the Fedieen. We lost very few men in the initial invasion.

If you or any of your other like-minded friends think that GWB was the only person, or that the US was the only country that felt Iraq had WMD's, then there is no hope for you on that subject. Yes, even you newest hero, Colon Powell thought so. Why, because every report from many countries felt he had WMD's. Even the Democrats felt he had them. Matter of fact we gave him plenty in the war against Iran. Our biggest concern was a developing nuclear program. He was touting it for a long time. It was only later, after we found him in a rat hole, that he said he was saying he had nuclear programs to keep Iran at bay. Well I guess our allies took him at his word.