Not the apathy of successive US governments then Teribus? Perhaps you've forgotten that even the Shrub himself ignored "go get the oil" advice from Perle & Co, until the hysterical over-reaction to 9-11 opened a window of opportunity.

On what basis do you describe the UN inaction as "lack of resolve," when you might equally have called it "good judgment"? Contrary to your blinkered hindsight, war against Iraq was on no-one's agenda in the 1990s, except possibly yours. As far as 1441 goes, I really don't know why you cling to it, given that the US made plain, and those who voted on it accepted, that it was not a war ultimatum; and in any case you seem to think that the US had some convoluted legal basis for going it alone.

Regardless of which, the fact remains that michaelr was spot on with his title for this thread. Iraq is a quagmire, and that it would become one was very widely predicted/i>.