Hitch!

I will, again, recommend Christopher Hitchens's "The Long Short War." It is a great book and a great historical record of the reasons for war outside of politics and revisionism.

To get a little flavor, read Restating the Case for War - Waiting for Saddam to change is what got us into this mess in the first place. in Slate. Good stuff, and sobering to a still-believer such as me:

I have noticed lately a distressing tendency on the part of those who support the intervention in Iraq to rest their case largely on underreported good news. Now, it is certainly true, as I have said myself, that there is much to celebrate in the new Iraq. The restoration of the ecology of the southern marshes, the freedom to follow the majority Shiite religion, the explosion of new print and electronic media, the emancipation of the schools and universities, and the consolidation of Kurdish autonomy are all magnificent things. But those who want to take credit for them must also axiomatically accept the blame for the failure to anticipate huge lacunae in the provision of power, water, and security.