Why Iraq

A lot of people struggle with this - they are skeptical about it. They see why in Afghanistan, but they don't see why in Iraq.

So why Iraq?

The answer is relatively simple if you pay attention to the U.S. administrations biggest fear:
A terrorist attack using WMD on American soil.

It isn't China becoming an economic powerhouse, it isn't the traitorous acts of their 'allies' in Europe, and it isn't a resurgent U.S.S.R. It isn't the spread of radical Islam by itself.
All these things are controllable to a certain extent, but one isn't.

A Stateless terrorist enemy with no regard for self preservation.

After 9/11, 51% of Americans woke up - the Bush administration certainly did.
The biggest problem that many critics of the Iraq war have is they haven't woken up.
They don't realize this is total war, this is global war, and believe me the Americans would be total waging war if the other 48% of their country would stop dragging their feet.
Right now America is waging this war as if it's lounging on the beach sipping a martini with an arm tied behind their back.

Bush realizes that what it will take to wake up the other half of the country, indeed the world, is a WMD attack on the United States. This is unacceptable. He can't let that happen, not after the massive damage that 9/11 did to the American economy, and not to mention the unacceptable loss in life.

A WMD attack on NY or LA would bring the country to close to the brink. This is the biggest mistake the terrorists made(fortunately). They didn't strike big and hard enough the 'first' time. Up until 9/11 they had the iniative, they blew it. 9/11 woke up enough of America without damaging it's ability to strike back, a nuclear detonation in downtown LA would certainly wake the country up and enrage it to the point it waged total war - perhaps even nuclear war, but why wait for that massive loss of life and not to mention the economic implications to the entire world. More than one nuclear bomb say in NY and LA at the same time would certain provoke MAD between the United States at the entire Middle East - something the U.S. would probably not recover from economically.

So America after 6 months successfully eliminates the main area of operations of Al Qaeda and is in the hunt for Osama. That's it right? WRONG.
Al Qaeda isn't Americas only enemy. America has some enemies that are all willing to use terrorism as their tool to deliver final destruction to the United States.
This is bad for the entire world, from us in New Zealand, to the South Americans, the Europeans, even France. If America goes down we all go down with her economically speaking.

So we've established the biggest threat to America - a WMD attack on the United States, but with the destruction of the Taliban it doesn't end there. A WMD of great magnintute needs state funding and base of operations.

One state leader did not denounce 9/11.
One state leader had been involved in a war with the United States since 1991.
One state leader has defied the international community and had acted aggressively against his neighbor's twice.
One state leader had demonstrated the will and the intent to use WMD careless and indiscriminately against civilians.
One state leader had tried to assassinate a President of the United States.
One state leader was a large funder of the PLO, gaining PLO support for his invasion of Kuwait. A clear supporter of terrorism.
One state leader had declared a non-aggression pact with Al Qaeda in 1992

Who was that leader? Saddam.

Saddam had to go. There was no question about it, and incidentally two other enemies of the United States, both perusing nuclear options, have been named as targets. Iran and North Korea - the axis of evil.

This wasn't completely about oil. The United States is awash in oil already, they had friendly ties with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait (which has a 90% approval rate of the U.S.), and the U.A.E which have equal to or more oil than Iraq. The United States is a massive producer of oil by itself, and it gets most of its oil from Canada.
If this was about oil it defies economic logic in itself not to mention the cost of lives when the same could have been achieved by simply drilling in Alaska.
This wasn't about personal gain for Bush. He put everything on the line and risked so much unpopularity from the international community and indeed his own people.
He put his neck out, he put his own country on the line. One who is after personal gain does not do that so publicly.

This is all about preventing a WMD terror attack from destroying millions of Americans by taking out those who have the means to make that happen, BEFORE IT HAPPENS.

When you do the math, Saddam was a highest priority target.
He had used WMD before and according to George Tenet of the CIA before the invasion it was a 'slam dunk' he had more [of course this turned out to be wrong, but we all know now about the CIA's love for Bush].
He was completely unremovable by a coup or assassination according to the CIA, the only option was military invasion.
He had demonstrated that he was an enemy of the United States and the free world by defying U.N. resolutions over and over and waging a war on U.S. planes enforcing the no fly zones.
He didn't denouce 9/11 and was a declared enemy of the United States.
He had used WMD before against civilians indiscriminately.

Saddam has now been removed and the threat of a WMD attack launched against America has been reduced, but again, it's not the end.
This isn't a war about one man, this isn't a war against one organization, or one state.
This is total war on any potential threat using all means possible, let's just hope the American left and those reluctant in the west will stop dragging their feet before it's too late.