I really disagreed with the Iraq war at the time: it was obvious that it was Bush's revenge and Cheney's wallet that was the motivation, not concerns about WMDs

I really disagreed with the Iraq war at the time: it was obvious that it was Bush's revenge and Cheney's wallet that was the motivation, not concerns about WMDs or revenge for 9/11. (If 9/11 is the motivation, invade Saudi or Pakistan. If WMD proliferation is the concern, invade Iran or North Korea before they can develop nuclear weapons!) However, Saddam Hussein was a genocidal dictator. He openly persecuted ethnic groups which were resistant to his rule. The mistake of the US was not in the toppling of Hussein, but in not having a credible plan to deal with the following sectarian crisis, where a majority ethnic group which had been suppressed suddenly has power over the minority ethnic group which had previously been in power. (The responsibility for which violence falls jointly on the people of Iraq.) To put it another way, either a genocide or a bloody civil war was inevitable with the death of Saddam Hussein or his successor, and all the US did was move the timeline forward 30 years.