I need to vent!

[griffin]

To be fair, Afghanistan was the base of operations of exported terrorists during that time and needed to be dealt with... and Bush's advisors told him that, but he wanted revenge on Iraq (first) over the unfinished business his father Bush Senior did during his time in office.
And Hussein needed to go, like Assad, but faking the reason for pulling the trigger on an invasion was unnecessary when there was already enough on Hussein to indict him on war crimes (against his own people and Kuwait).
It was simply abuse of power by Bush Junior that resulted in the Iraq invasion after September 11... instead of going to Afghanistan where the son of the Bush's family friends (the Bin Ladens) was located.

And it seems that America's politicians & military just don't learn. They rush in because they think they are the most powerful nation, but don't pre-plan what to do later.
Vietnam - invaded and pulled out leaving a vacuum of power for the Communist Regime to move in and slaughter western supporters.
Cuba - attempted invasion resulting in cementing a dictator... then blockading the country for their own mistake.
Iran - backed Iraq to go to war with Iran, resulting in the creation of an extreme religious state.
Iraq - Bush faked the WMD and used America's military to fight daddies unfinished war, creating a vacuum of power that was filled by extremists.
Palestine - The heavily religious America support the creation of a Jewish state in 1948, oppressing the native Arab/Muslim people and generate hostilities with neighbouring countries, creating a regional environment of hatred over the West.
Libya - Supported opposition groups and protected them with no-fly zones, to oust the Gadaffi regime without making sure that a stable government could fill the void.
Afghanistan - Removed the main threat and installed a puppet regime, but didn't reinforce the security of the country, creating power vacuums in the tribal areas of the country.
Syria - Supported opposition groups in an attempt to oust Assad, but creating large parts of the country without stable government, creating a safehaven for terrorist groups.

It's impossible to say that America deserves retaliation because the citizens and soldiers are the ones who suffer... instead of the egotistical politicians who order military operations from the comfort of their oval office, without caring about the consequences of their actions.

And on really rare occasions, there are good outcomes from politicians using public grief to push through an agenda - like the Port Arthur massacre. We'd never have gun reform with our current political parties, but there have been no mass shootings since.