Right now the US is negotiating a 'status of forces' agreement with Iraq that would allow the US to maintain 58 military bases in Iraq. I'm not sure if that includes the US embassy next to Baghdad that is the size of a college campus.
Top Iraqi officials are calling for a radical reduction of the U.S. military's role here after the U.N. mandate authorizing its presence expires at the end of this year. Encouraged by recent Iraqi military successes, government officials have said that the United States should agree to confine American troops to military bases unless the Iraqis ask for their assistance, with some saying Iraq might be better off without them.
"The Americans are making demands that would lead to the colonization of Iraq," said Sami al-Askari, a senior Shiite politician ... "If we can't reach a fair agreement, many people think we should say, 'Goodbye, U.S. troops. We don't need you here anymore.' "
Read Iraqi reactions and some more details about the negotiations.
Another interesting article Bush Has a few regrets,
In the UK times online "President Bush regrets his legacy as man who wanted war"
Update, One more thing
War is an opportunity to make money, for some companies. And politicians sometimes like excuses to give handfuls of taxpayer money to rich corporations, they hope the corporations will finance their campaign, or maybe give them a high paid job when they get caught screwing the taxpayer and get thrown out of Washington. AKA the Military Industrial Complex.
the $300 Billion Betrayal - Video
Weapons programs at the defense department are one of the biggest sources of wasteful spending in the federal budget. Just to give you an idea of how much $300 billion is, you could run the entire state of Tennessee for 11 years on just $295 billion. That $300 billion number comes from the Government Accountability Office's new report on Defense Acquisitions. Watch the video and see examples.
I totally feel where you are coming from but I agree with (e:drew) 100%, I just feel like I was brainwashed looking back on it.
Yea, good point, it wasn't till college that i learned about all the other foreign interventions, Guatemala, Iran, Chile, many times overthrowing democracies. But still much of mu generation believes that America should be better than that. I'll go with claiming next time though :-)
When were we like that ideal? Sadly, we've been "might makes right" from the beginning, even as we have said "liberty and justice for all" from the beginning.
America didn't change. Not that much, anyway. It's just that when we were young, we believed our country's propaganda.
I think its time to live up to our ideals, but I think it might be a "claiming" rather than a "re-claiming."