"Nobody loves a giant" W. Chamberlain.
The Bristish Empire knows all about this. They were the polity everyone loved to hate. We now have that role.
The BBC
I watch the BBC World Service News. While clearly anti-current U.S. administration, BBC is MORE likely to drop crumbs of good news from Iraq than CBS, NBS, ABS, CNNBS, or MSNBS. They actually report terrorist casualities - unlike CBS at all BS.
I can't stand to watch Fox because I do not feel they are trying to tell the truth either.
All special pleaders. No professionalism. All trying to prove they can turn the political wheels in the US. Did it to LBJ and have been trying to flex their muscle ever since.
The soldiers come back and say they do not recognize the war portrayed on the "mainstram media."
Iraq and terrorism
One can only say Iraq did not support terrorists if one does not classsify Hamas, Islamic Jahad, et al. as terorists. Saddam was openly paying bonuses of $25,000 USD to every family of a suicide bomber. Checks were delivered on live national Iraqi TV. I doubt that Israel has any doubts.
Did War in Iraq inspire terrorists to attack the West? No, they were already doing it for years.
Did the War in Iraq inspire terrorists to attack the West in Iraq? Absolutely. Tough on the Iraqis to be sure. Much nicer when all the dead were of other nationalisites (or Kurds) in other cities.
The biggest inspiration for terorism in the world is what has gone on in Palestine. It is vanity to put Iraq in the same league.
Intelligence Failure
As pointed out, every major intel service in the world thought Saddam had WMD - including Russian Federation, France, Germany, Japan, and Israel, and that Saddam was working to get more/bigger/better. Why? Silly Saddam, master of the error in judgment, thought that if he could fool the West into thinking he had them, we'd back down on enforcing the terms of the treaty that ended the Gulf War. So he did his best, even in the hours before he was attacked, to create that impression that he had them, including "deployment orders" for gas munitions. Only after the attack did he bleat, "What WMD?" The world was wrong.
Why does human error have to be a conspiracy? 'Cause you don't like the guy/party/government being attacked for the error. So, e.g., FDR deliberately "let" Japan attack Pearl Harbor and the Democrats "lost" China (like it was ours to lose) because they "liked" the Reds. Screwups explain more than plots IMO. Those who say the evidence was faked do so out of a need to further dislike/hate/denegrate an administration they already dislike/hate/denegrate.
War on terror
You cannot kill an idea. But you can eliminate governments that officially support that idea, which makes it tougher on those who practice the idea. Two down.
Then there is the reaction of Lybia to Cowboy George. Take our nuclear bombs - please. They now repose in Tennessee, U.S.A., not in the hands of Lybia. That was one reaction to our knocking off Saddam that gets easily ignored. MQ didn't want to follow SH.
The best way to stop terrorists is to give better choices to the recruits they want to sign up to blow themselves -- and others - up.
Ending dictatorships and other authoritarian regimes MAY be an answer.
We have had three elections in Iraq that the UN says were OK. That's the first three in the entire history of the area.
Is democracy really the answer? Who knows. Look what just happened in Palestine. Democratic governments led us to WW I. Hitler was voted into power.
The "end game" was always my worry.
Come back in fifty years. We'll know.
