So Shrub (President Bush) is a big fat liar. That in and of itself should not be a surprise; we expect our leaders to be model citizens (which they should be), but let's be honest, to be a good politician you have to lie. Bush wanted to get something done and he lied to do it, just like anyone else in Washington. President Clinton was such a liar that he could have very easily been removed from office for perjury. But it was probably his lying that made him such an excellent politician in the first place.
However, the point here is not to defend Bush, who is a flaming idiot as stupid as they come (well, maybe not so stupid, you can't get elected to President without SOME brains....somewhere.) The point is just because Bush's reasons for going to war were crock doesn't mean that the war itself was. Bush should have cited the moral and ethical reasons for going to war, ie that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who was killing his own people and thousands of others for years. To those who argue that we can't just kill foreign leaders at will, let me first point out that killing Hussein, a tyrant who was not elected, is not the same thing as killing Tony Blair, the democratically elected leader of Britain. And while there is certainly considerable danger in imposing the American moral view on the rest of the world, consider how unique the Iraq situation was: Hussein was unquestionably evil, the Iraqi military had already been proven no match for the American Army, and there was little danger of any real retaliation from any Arab neighbors. Plenty of countries fit one or two of these requirements, but how often do they fit all three? It is the fact that all three requirements were met that makes the war in Iraq permissible, even if our President is too stupid to realize the reasons he SHOULD have cited to go in.
Now, the challenge is to get out. In the parts of Iraq where the electricity is on, water is flowing, and American forces treat the locals with respect and provide protection, the Iraqis love us. It is only in places like Baghdad, where basic services have not been restored, security is not yet present, and as a result citizens are not treated respectfully that we are hated. The Iraqis will hail us as their liberators if we truly liberate them, but will forever scorn us with the rest of their Arab neighbors if we abuse them the way their bretheren believe we abuse the rest of the world.
We did the right thing in going into Iraq. Now we should do the right thing again by treating the Iraqis with respect and showing them that we care, by finishing the job and getting out as quickly as possible.

Watched 60 Minutes tonight. We should all take notice of Aaron Feuerstein and what a true mensch he is. It is absolutely appalling that his business ethics are not the standard in this day and age. Here is a man as concerned about his employee's welfare as he is about the business', and his own. He uses words and language unheard of in business circles today, to say nothing of society at large, words like "responsibility" and phrases like "the right thing to do." Honestly, why is it so hard for people to be responsible, to do the right thing, to give consideration to the welfare of others? I certainly am not guiltless in this arena, I have a long way to go about thinking about others before myself, but the lack of personal responsibility is appaling in this country. Someone slips and spills coffee in their lap, then pretends its the fault of the company that sold the coffee that they got burned. Its ridiculous that a law suit was brought in that instance; its downright appaling that the company was found responsible and that the judgement was at least six figures. Now you know why everything that might ever hold something hot, or even cold, has a warning about temperature and laps. Aaron Feuerstein is not like most Americans however. He paid is workers for weeks after the mill in which they worked burned down. He could have taken the insurance money and run, but as he says, "And what would I do with it? Eat more? Buy another suit? Retire and die...No, that did not go into my mind.” (From the 60 Minutes interview) Feuerstein instead used the money and more in loans to rebuild the plant, right where it had been, going against common practice of picking up and moving in search of cheaper labor. Aaron Feuerstein should be applauded, and more importantly emulated by anyone who even thinks of entering business. It shames us as a country and society that he is one of the sole beacons of ethics in business practice; the next generation should strive towards common decency, rather than greed.
I recommend reading the article that is essentially a transcript of the report at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/03/60minutes/main561656.shtml At least, that's the URL at the time of this writing. I also assure you there will be more comments on the totally lack of personal responsibility in America, through lawsuits among other things....but I'll save that for another time.