On that I agree. But, other than a freer Kurdistan, I don't see the benefits of post-Saddam Iraq, which is now little more than a vassal state of Iran. For all his evil, Saddam was a deterrent to Iranian expansionism.
If anything we should have made Iraq our permanent base in the Middle East, so that we could finally tell the Saudis to take a flying leap.
One of the benefits is that we do not have a Saddam with WMD which both KAy and duelfer said he ultimately was after and that he and his disgusting sons may very well have had by now . Another benefit was the thousands of Al queda operatives.who were drawn to Iraq and killed. Yet another is the cooperation between us and our allies which allowed systems to be put into place which still thwart attacks today.