I reluctantly have to agree with the article. Spreading democracy should not be our goal. We must first defend America. Then we can help those who are being oppressed and/or being slaughtered or starved in other countries.
Terrorists, domestic or foreign, pose a mortal threat and cannot be ignored. Anarchists also pose a serious threat because without law and order, we would descend into the darkness of survival of the fittest.
Having said that, the war in Iraq, justified or not, has been a noble war that freed millions from a murderous tyranny. We have learned many lessons from Iraq that will hopefully guide us to wiser decisions in the future. We must stay the course and continue to honor our military who carry out their country's mission regardless of their personal feelings and the abuse by ill informed US citizens.
God bless America.
The initial point was to push Islam in general. The war has done that, but not as much as was initially envisioned. I also suspect there are people in the administration who took their eye off the ball (the Islamists) and got a little too invested in 'democracy' in the ME for its own sake instead of a strategy in the WOT. I don't think it's near what it looks like because politicians tend to overstate things in the spirit of if you repeat something long enough and loud enough it it must be true (similar to 'Islam is a Religion of Peace'). I doubt Lincoln, for example, believed at least some of what he said during the Civil War, but the rhetoric was necessary to instill motivation and morale in the North.