Iraq War and the 2008 elections

The war on terrorism started with the war against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The upbuild of the Bush image made him take the next step; the war on Iraq.
What he set out to do:
- Bring an end to the Saddam regim which was supposed to have nuclear and bio war capabilities.
- Liberate the people of Iraq
- End the linkage with Taliban/ Al Qaeda and other terrorist activites
- Get a cheaper source of Oil (oops is this classified !!!)
- Build modern Iraq with liberal values (read bring in capitalism and promote companies from allies to re-build Iraq)
- Destroy the Nuclear and Bio war facilities.
- Win the support of the American people.
- Build a US base that could be leveraged for any future war with Iran.

What he achieved:
- People of Iraq are liberated. But they sleepless nights as there is more voilence than those at the time of Saddam.
- No linkage were found to Al Qaeda except for a few province n tribal lords who do not pose a lot of threat.
- Neither nuclear nor bio facilities found.
- Instability as Civil war could spur anytime
- He lost support as people see America not gaining anything out of this war as it seems more like yet another vietnam.
- A US base doesn't seem to be what the US people want.

The GOP election opened up his eyes and the voice of the public was strong.... Where is this war leading us.. Are we winning... why should America support the re-building of Iraq.
What are the options avaialable right now?

Withdrawing the troops will only worsen the problem as the civil war would open up and bring destability in the middle east.
Only time will tell.

P.S: This was one of the posting drafter long back that never made it on time... but with nancy Pellosi trying to put a deadline to pull back the troops, I felt this could be published as is...