The Fruits of Victory

We may have entered into Iraq in 2003 with what now appears bogus reasons, but we mustn't forget the root cause of our intervention, which is to defeat Islamic Radicalism and those who support its dark ideology. Here's Oliver Kamm writing in the Guardian:

One point the much-reviled neoconservatives have right is that
Islamist terrorism has deep roots in the perpetuation of autocratic states in
the Middle East. Denied an outlet in politics, dissent emerges in the only part
of society open to it: religious fanaticism. The overthrow of the most bestial
of despotisms in that region removes a crucial player and an appalling dynasty
from that equation.
We can, moreover, verifiably assert that two of the
states in the region that previously held WMD - Iraq and Libya - no longer do
so, owing directly to our intervention. If Iran did indeed suspend the more
overtly military aspects of its nuclear programme (though not uranium
enrichment, for which its civil nuclear programme has no need) in late 2003,
that is also suggestive that Saddam's overthrow gave greater impetus to the
cause of nuclear non-proliferation than CND cares to acknowledge.

Critics of the Iraq intervention create a mountain out of a molehill by continuously bringing up the charge of a White House conspiracy for the war, revealing a deep-seated anti-western ideology, and totally excusing the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and before.