Iraq

When did it become commonly accepted the Iraq war was a failure? More and more, I read the MSM simply refer to the war in terms like these (re Hitchens position):

"it must not be forgotten in mourning him that he got the single most consequential decision in his life horrifically, petulantly wrong"; indeed: "People make mistakes. What's horrible about Hitchens' ardor for the invasion of Iraq is that he clung to it long after it became clear that a grotesque error had been made..."

Really? You're that sure? After the fact that Iraq is now a democratic state, the US troops are gone, the Arab spring, and OBL is dead, you are really positive that Iraq is a grotesque error?

Let me put this another way - the people who beat drums about the "grotesque failure" of the Iraq war hang their hats on the weapons of mass destruction argument. They call it a lie, when in fact, it was a mistake. But why is there not a similar outrage to the intelligence failure of 9/11? Why is there not the same incessant revisiting of this "grotesque failure?" Why not demand heads roll at the CIA and so forth? And also, what about the gross failure to protect the Kurds from Saddam's retributions after Gulf War 1?

I do think, if America had the ability to see into the future back in 2003, there might not have been the same support for the Iraq war. But who cares? What a pointless way to think about things. I still think the overall logic for the invasion was correct and the outcome, at this particular moment, unlike in 2006, doesn't seem all that bad, especially in historical terms.