I was not a proponent of the war.  During the lead up to the war, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I were backpacking around the world.  It was revealing following the escalation and developments from an international perspective.  In the US, the notion was that there was solid moral justification and strong international support for the war.  However, the reality was much different.  Traveling through Central America, South America, India and Southeast Asia, nearly everyone I spoke with was unanimously opposed to the US operation.  Frankly, people were puzzled.  Why did the US want to start a war?  There was no justification in their minds (turns out they were right).  And it was completely clear to me that the US was taking a period of enormous international support post 9/11 and turning it rapidly into a period of enormous international animosity towards the US through faulty policies.  You didn't have to be a scholar to see this .  You just had to walk out on the streets of virtually any country in the world and talk to the citizens.  The Bush administration stated it was crucial to succeeding in the fight against terrorism.  What was clear was that these actions were not only going to unify the terrorists, but very clearly that they would make the terrorists recruiting much stronger. Sadly, almost no-one in the house or Senate opposed him (Robert Byrd and Barack Obama are two notable exceptions)

And here we are.  This all turned out to be true.  Even by the administration's own assessments.  Why did we go to war?   I have no idea.  But the consequences could be easily foreseen.

Let's talk foreign policy.  What basic principals should govern US foreign policy?  Let's debate.