Iraq War Was A Success... at first.

[Da Skinna]

Apparently, listening from varying accounts, the Iraqi people did indeed welcome the American forces with open arms and kind hearts. Apparently they did like that America had come to join them in their cause of ridding their oppression in the form of Saddam and his sons.

But where everything went wrong, was when they learnt that American interests are not really the interests of the Iraqi people, as they claimed to be. This is most intriguing, that this war we all approach with apprehension did actuall work at first, but soon fell apart due to... well, human nature, in short.

America has America's best interests at heart, as any frugal citizen would tell you, and so America's interests diverged at one point, most likely the point of economic incentive, from that of the Iraqi peoples.

We value money over the lives of foreign citizens, only because it looks bad that we would value money over our own citizens. That of the entire West.

I believe the Iraq War was and is a cornerstone of American history, where the promulgation of a certain group's best interests were taken into consideration more than any other group's for the sole purpose of self-propellant of the art of self-preservation.

The Iraq War, like any other war, was in the best interests of self-preservation. Ill-advisedly or not, a country can and arguably should act on the principle of self-preservation.

As all cells do since conception, self-preservation is our most basic instinct. Who can deny that truth? Who can deny that science?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Wait...is this political or philisophical? The only question you asked for us to debate is whether self-preservations is our most basic instinct or not.

[Da Skinna]

Is a rhetorical question relegated to the philosophical, or the political realm?

[Erik]

A stable Iraq would have been much better for America's interests (think lower oil prices).

The Iraq war was a failure even before it had started because America didn't bring in anything near the required amount of troops to stabilize a country that size.
No matter how much 99.9% of the local population loves you, you'll still have to deal with the 0.1% of people who abuse the post major battle chaos to try to grab the power themselves.
A fact experienced, battle hardened, former officers like Jacques Chirac fully comprehended.