So, the pro-warrior can't stay there long. It's time to dance again. How about we hustle on over to...um...Iraq was seeking weapons...of some kind. Yeah, that's the ticket.

And the dance starts again.

The United States faces two key threats to its security at this time: Terrorism and WMD proliferation. They are very real threats and require urgent action.

But the Iraq war has done nothing on the matter of WMD proliferation (because WMD were not likely there) and has had the opposite of its intended effect on the criminal gangs of terrorists who are our real enemies--it has inspired formerly non-radicalized Muslims to believe that the West does, indeed, intend another Crusade against their culture. War supporters may still be in denial, but the rest of the world is not--it's obvious to any observer that the war was launched with lies, so suspicion and speculation about real motives are virtually guaranteed.

The Iraq war has done nothing to weaken terrorists. The terrorists are not states. You can't destroy them merely by destroying a government. It's harder than that.

And the only truly effective way to reduce WMD proliferation is through international policing. The U.S. cannot solve the problem with invasions. (This is actually a good thing--because we can't possibly invade everywhere on the planet. But strong international policing of WMD is possible, with our cooperation.)

The Iraq war was a huge mistake. At a cost of tens of thousands of lives, at least 200,000,000,000 U.S. taxpayer dollars and much of the respect and goodwill of other nations who matter, we have managed to make the United States no more safe than before the invasion.

The sooner Iraq war advocates stop dancing around the facts, the sooner we can acknowledge the mistake and move on with strategies that really do make the United States more secure.