SASless,
The problem with starting a war with a mistake is that people with brains remember the mistakes. If the war was initially sold as necessary for "the long view of the war against terror" it wouldn't wash, and it doesn't now.
It is easy for glib apologists to now say such things, but I ask you to tell me that this is the price Iraquis had to pay for the mistake:
This is enough to create a thousand "terrorists."