Quote Originally Posted by yesdachi View Post
Originally I think we went there to kick a$$ because we could. Saddam was a douchebag with or without WMD’s or any connection to 911. We hopped on our white horse, while half cocked and rode in and knocked over his house of cards (which I still think was a good thing to do and a move we should have dome 10 years earlier). Then we turned around with our heads held high and got ready to leave and noticed we couldn’t without knocking over everyone else’s house of cards or letting enemies build bigger houses of cards in Saddam’s place. We were screwed ever since.

Everything that has happened since the end of the beginning (oil prices, civilian contracts, Bin Laden, WMB cover-ups, etc.) have all just been convenient opportunities that were left open after the initial strategery.
You are describing this as this was a surprising turn of events....in fact it was pretty obvious and plenty of people pointed this out before the invasion.