What are we doing in Iraq?

[Undertoad]

The original neocon notion was that reforming Iraq would accelerate reforms in other countries, a sort of domino theory as pressures are put on theocratic rulers in the region. As of now it looks exactly wrong, as it accelerates sectarian instincts in the people, which precisely fails to solve the problem.

The question is, if you destroy the original Al Qaeda - including getting bin Laden - does that make the civilized world safe from islamist terrorism? Or is a bigger solution needed?

Seems to me almost everyone on both left and right believed in a bigger solution to address "root causes" - they disagreed on what those root causes are, because they come from different schools of thought.

Anyway, Iraq is the bigger solution that the right came up with to address the bigger problem of islamist terrorism.