Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian View Post
What got me was the pointlessness of it. There we were, living in a post-Cold War world, with the US far and away the only superpower on the planet. Yet they were picking a fight against a fourth rate power in order to effect change in third rate powers.
A fair point, and you could view the whole effort as superfluous. Iraq's connection to Al-Queda was, at best, nominal only and how much "pinning" Iran on both sides would really have made a difference is clearly arguable.

But, having decided to do this for geopolitical pressure reasons (the neo-con goal at the time, albeit unstated), why not at least do it COMPETENTLY. Galling.