Every word of that was true when he said it and is still true today. However, we deposed their leader with the ill-conceived notion that these people could govern themselves. But, unfortunately, those who had these grandiose ideas of a democratic utopia in an area where democracy is literally a foreign word did not account for the sectarian issues that a country like Iraq had/has. You know, like the fact that it was only a country at the pleasure of the League of Nations and was a conglomeration of people from different ethnic backgrounds who could only work together when a dictator imposed his will on them. Remove that dictator, and these ethnic groups would batter for power.
So, I guess we could have stayed in iraq for decades like the Brits did for a while ruling my military decree, getting our soldiers killed biding time until we felt it was stable enough to leave. But in reality, that may be centuries. We had to leave and should have left. We had no business there in the first place. We created a mess. And now it needs cleaned up. there is no easy solution. It's what happens when a group of idealogues impose their will and dream of all the money that can be made. And then blame the next guy for not fixing the mess they made. Imagine if we had done what McCain wanted and deposed Assad. Sometimes a dictator is the best strategic option. The ME was a helluva lot more stable pre-Iraq invasion than post. That's for damn sure.
