Quote (thundercock @ 7 Nov 2021 04:15)
Iraq is a stable democratic-ish country now. The same people who are against Saddam being replaced are the same people who felt like Hitler could be controlled post WW2.
I'd argue that the Vietnam War was a bigger blunder than the Iraq War. I know you don't value American lives but I think 50,000 Americans dead is far worse than 4000.
The Iraq War led to over 500k civilian casualties and destablized the entire region. Without the Iraq War, the Syrian Civil War will not break out (another 600k casualties), ISIS will not be formed, there aren't dozens of terrorist attacks and bombings all across Europe and NA, even the civil wars in Libya and Yemen might not happen. Thus, there is also no refugee crisis, the political landscape in Europe looks very different today. This, in turn, also means that there's no Brexit and prooobably no Trump presidency. Also, Hillary wins the 2008 Dem primaries and becomes president; Obama is probably president right around now and will be a much more effective leader because he doesn't get to the White House before he's experienced and shrewd enough.
Long story short, the Iraq War is a prime example of the butterfly effect and almost all events triggered by it suck ass. On top of that, the Iraq War was completely unnecessary. Saddam did not possess WMDs and posed no real threat. By contrast, the Vietnam war was part of the Cold War, a bloody civil war between the North and the South was inevitable, irrespective of American involvement.