If you want to be wise afterward, the biggest US mistake was 1970-1980 when US oil companies together with CIA wanted to destroy Iran and lifted Saddam to power with a condition that he should attack Iran together with USA. However, when Saddam followed the US order and attacked, US Congress did not accept the direct support to Saddam, support took place using 3rd countries and military advise only (CIA used huge amount of black money from drug trafficking and strange weapons deals - but failed). So USA betrayed its own Saddam. And when Iraq lost the war, USA wanted Saddam to do something crazy just to get an excuse to conquer Iraq itself to gain some benefit (the Kuwait occupation was supported by US ministers). So the Gulf war was just one chapter in the US-CIA history of mass-murders - not a single event.

Actually, it was the same stupidity with the Taliban. When Afghan government wanted Soviets to help in fighting against Taliban rebels, USA supported the mujaheddin (by financing al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden) and then later betrayed them just to get an excuse to occupy Afghanistan.

Let's see what will happen with Pakistan. USA (CIA) has operated there very actively, carried out assassinations, lifted up military dictators and has a good reason to occupy that country sooner or later (as it has gone out of US hands now). I just wonder do the poor Americans have houses after all this money wastage.

The final problem has always been Iran ... not the country itself but its huge oil resources which are in "wrong hands" as they belong now to local population - not for Bush Hawks. Iran also started to use Euro in oil business and collaborated with e.g. Russia and China. But USA military is far too weak to "liberate" Iran. One dream has been that the crazy Israelis could do the dirty job at the beginning and US could then go to pick the berries afterward.

Quote:
Throughout the 1980s, the U.S. Commerce Department approved at least $1.5 billion in exports with possible military applications from U.S. companies to Iraq...
C.I.A. officials "were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose" to Iran. "The use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern," he said. One veteran said, that the Pentagon "wasn't so horrified by Iraq's use of gas." "It was just another way of killing people _ whether with a bullet or phosgene, it didn't make any difference."
Howard Teicher: CIA Director Casey personally spearheaded the effort to ensure that Iraq had sufficient military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to avoid losing the Iran-Iraq war. Pursuant to the secret NSDD, the United States actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing U.S. military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure that Iraq had the military weaponry required. The United States also provided strategic operational advice to the Iraqis to better use their assets in combat. For example, in 1986, President Reagan sent a secret message to Saddam Hussein telling him that Iraq should step up its air war and bombing of Iran.
Affidavit. United States v. Carlos Cardoen, et al.

Quote:
Iraq is once again a target of US "regime change." Despite that, precious little is being said by the corporate media about how the CIA aided and abetted political assassination, regime change and mass murder, all in the name of putting Saddam's Ba'ath power into power for the first time in Iraq.
Iraqis have always suspected that the 1963 military coup that set Saddam Husain on the road to absolute power had been masterminded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). New evidence just published reveals that the agency not only engineered the putsch but also supplied the list of people to be eliminated once power was secured--a monstrous stratagem that led to the decimation of Iraq's professional class.
Regime Change: How the CIA put Saddam's Party in Power

George W. Bush declared the objective of the invasion was "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people." The actual existence of weapons of mass destruction, arguing a war in Iraq was "not justified" in the given context UNMOVIC's February 12, 2003 report. Funny - isn't it?

Quote (Times 8/19/1998):
Times reports that the U.S. SPENT more than 6 billion dollars to support terrorism (Osama bin Laden) - and that’s just in Afghanistan.
According to the Times, bin Laden et al were CIA employees, given the best training, arms, facilities, and lots of cash for many years. That's what the Times reported on August 24, 1998.

There are number of academic investigations about US-CIA operations in M East and in those lights the whole story of US wars are unbelievable. If you want to have links to such research, I can provide.