iraq
it's a darn good thing iraq turned into a quagmire. if we had rolled over the country and pacified it quickly would we have stopped? would there be elections in iran today? what would russia and china have done? fortunately we can only speculate. it's entirely possible we owe a gigantic thank you to the "insurgents" who defended their homeland against an invading army. (shouldn't we call them patriots?). and a grudging grunt of a thanks to the sadistic homicidal sociopaths who joined them. gawd what a mess. and there's no way we could have foreseen this? i call bullshits.