You are using a hindsight is 20/20 approach here. You are acting as if Russia, France and Germany had some supernatural clairvoyance that allowed them to know beyond a doubt that Iraq was not a threat (also I believe that saying that Iraq was not a threat is disingenuous, how would we know? If we invaded Germany in 1936 they wouldn’t have look like much of a threat either, but it would have been the best thing in the long run). Everyone’s intelligence said the same thing, they were all equally flawed. The disagreement wasn’t about whether Saddam was a threat or not, it was about what to do about it. Russia, France and Germany when against us not because of right and wrong, they did it for several reasons: 1. these three nations are vying for global power and to disrupt our goals was an easy way to check our power in a very consequence free manner. 2. they were benefiting financially from Saddam’s current Iraq. They were acting in their own self interests not because they were gazing into some crystal ball.

As for the other lies (ie. Al Qaeda and Saddam) do you even want to go there?

You guys always bring this up, I never remember anybody saying that Saddam had anything to do with 911. The truth is they had a common enemy, the West and in particular the US. So were they friends officially, no but the fact that they both wanted to see the US burn makes them allies in a practical sense. I would say that Japan an Germany were no more true allies than OBL and Saddam. I know I know, Hitler declared war on the US after PH but it was only because he wanted an excuse to send U boats to the East coast to further cut off supplies to the UK. Germany and Japan cooperated during WWII no more than Saddam and OBL did.

We invade and occupy Iraq, while haveing the gall to lecture to Iran and Syria about staying out of Iraq. We conduct ourselves as though we own the world.

What would you have us do? Like or not the US is an empire, like the UK was and Rome was, and while these empires may do things that are a bit immoral, and strut around like they own the joint they often are responsible for more good than bad. Look what happened when Rome fell, the dark ages. Would you rather live during the Roman empire or the dark ages? When the UKs power was in decline and the great depression leveled the playing field ambitious dictators sprung up everywhere WWII occurred. As annoying as superpowers may be they keep the world in relative peace. As empires go you would be hard pressed to find one that is more generous and benevolent than the United States. Not to say we are without flaws, but really the things you are complaining about are pretty minor when compared to every other empire in history

I don't believe that our interests are served by these policies.

What do you think our interests are, because I see these actions as doing just that, and in so doing preventing another large scale war a la WWII.

Fun fact: I live in Iowa City, Iowa and during the floods this summer we deployed more sand bags than were deployed during all of Katrina and set a National record, mostly all of it was from volunteers it was an amazing thing to see. This is off topic but I believe that there is a culture of victimhood that certain news agencies, politicians and political movements fuel that contributes more to tragedies like Katrina than did George Bush.