And that, Bob, is the view of most of us over here although I would never deny the right of those who wish to debate the rights and wrongs of it all to do so.
I wish you had left me something to add!
No, the first mistake (as we were reminded by Henry Kissinger this morning) was not to continue to Baghdad to bring down Saddam Hussein during Desert Storm.
The
worst mistake of this whole sorry affair so far is OBL's horrendous misjudgement of the democratic world's reaction to his opening gambit on 11 September. He, and his Taleban hosts, are even now unable to see that this conflict will continue until they no longer pose a threat to the open and free societies that they despise so much.
And that will probably take a very long time. So you weak-spirited tree-huggers had better settle in for the long haul because nothing you can say is going to change anything.
Edit: Changing none of the above, I had meant to add for the benfit of OldBonaMate, who hopes that there is light at the end of the tunnel, there most likely will be. But it will be very, very bright and you mustn't look directly at it or it will damage your sight. 
[ 05 November 2001: Message edited by: fobotcso ]