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Oh Jeez. I don't even know what I think, beyond having a vague idea that this is one of those situations where there's no rights, just wrongs, and moderately less crappy wrongs. The subject is almost too big for me to attach any particular value to my own (or many other) opinions on the matter. That said, these are my own personal conclusions so far:
1) Bush is a twat, and an unelected twat at that. I'd doubt it would be wise to leave him in charge of the contents of his own pants, let alone an economy the size of America. To borrow a phrase from Rowan Atkinson, I wouldn't trust him to sit the right way on a toilet.
2) Blair. See most points regarding Bush. And like Bush, he's in favour of (or at least supportive of) schooling which teaches that God created the world in seven days, contrary to every single existing piece of evidence.
3) Fundamentalist rulers such as those named above have a tendency to galvanise the opposition into something of an equally fundamentalist persuasion, or at least to galvanise already existing fundamentalist forces into a unified front. I deeply distrust these forms of government as I believe they are essentially driven towards achieving similarly oppresive ends, irrespective of whatever language that may be couched in. An atom bomb with peace signs painted onto it is still an atom bomb.
4) Therefore I'd suggest that Al Queda is pretty much a western invention, irrespective of the cultural heritage or aims of those presently defined by the term.
5) Not only do our rulers lie to us (the WMD excuse) but they seem to know that we know they lie to us, and do it anyway because the reality of any given situation has apparently ceased to hold the same currency as what that situation means to a small group of people in positions of power.
6) I really don't see how hanging Saddam Hussein has helped.
7) The bottom line is, I suppose, despite all of the above, what matters here is the quality of life for people in Iraq. All we're hearing is the odd report of unrest and things getting blown up. Those upon whom all this has a very direct impact would appear to have little say in the matter. All the talk and opinion is coming from Bush or Blair, neither of whom hold Iraqi passports.
I suspect a pretty bloody horrible regime has been replaced by one that may be an improvement in some respects. If so, good - although condoning what has happened does not seem to be entirely an option. There's plenty of historical evidence to suggest that Benito Mussolini wasn't such a bad guy and certainly his influence upon Italy was not entirely negative - but that doesn't mean I'd regard him as a much misunderstood bloke who should probably be remembered as one of the good guys.
Any thoughts?

By the way, I typed an 8 followed by a bracket in up there and it came out as a somewhat innapropriate smiley. How irritating.
An incisive analysis there, Felice, and I'm glad to feel somewhat better informed. You're right about the death sentence. If "punishment" was the issue, life imprisonment would have been a better choice, aside from which any Saddam nostalgia is now more likely, I would think, to take hold. Execution may even in the long term serve to turn him into a martyr - another victim of the West. The US attitude seems supremely arrogant, being one of "give these people a chance to see things our way, and they'll see things our way," which ignores the persistence of regional culture. I've been told many of the problems of Africa stem from attempts to superimpose vague ideas of democracy upon a long, long, long tribal tradition. That is, as soon as you're in power you do the right thing and give jobs to all your friends and no amount of pro-democracy evangelising from abroad is going to change that overnight so a bad system just gets worse. That seems to be what's happening here.

Hmmm. Is it just us two here or what?
I feel somewhat uncomfortable with making sweeping generalisations, particularly as America-bashing somehow feels a bit too easy. So just in case this is taken any other way, can I just say that I've got a lot of respect for at least some of the country's people. Most of my CDs are by US bands and artists, as is also true of my shelf groaning with dry archaeological texts. I like plenty of American authors (P.J.O'Rourke, Burroughs, Bukowski, Rollins) and film-makers, and the Americans I've come across here on the net have as one been great people (hello Sidious), but...

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I can't decide if I think the US administration is being arrogant and extremely stupid, or evil and deceptive.

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The first option I guess, and it's worrying. These people genuinely seem to believe they're acting for the best and the rest of us will come around given time. It seems to be consistent with often quoted statistics about how many US citizens actually know that Germany is in Europe and so on. I just don't think they (the administration) have any idea of what this looks like to the rest of us, or the worrying way in which they're turning their country into one big global bogeyman. One of Jello Biafra's spoken word monologues (about US foreign policy) ends with something like "...and these people wonder why everybody hates us."
Sadly but understandably, it seems true that, if not "everybody", then certainly plenty of people do hate the US. In Mexico, I usually get taken for an American businessman (I try to avoid dressing like a tourist) and when they find out I'm not the response in every single case has been overwhelming relief and a suddenly much warmer welcome followed usually by some anecdote of the general 'arrogance' (that exact word used on a number of occasions) of those from north of the border. I've also found myself in the middle of somewhat fiery anti-US demonstrations, which has been kind of alarming. I've sneaked away imagining I might be mistaken for a norteamericano.
My point (if there is one) is that, as I say, I seriously doubt the US government realises what it's doing to its own country in terms of reputation (and has been doing for some time) and things seem to be escalating now. America has to stop acting like some huge thermo-nuclear teenager seeing how much it can get away with, because nothing is going to improve whilst it's operating by the same code that suggested Iraq was a good idea.
By the way, I'm under no illusions that the UK government is something to be proud of (and certainly not in terms of Anglo-Mexican relations either).
What's the story in NZ, Felice. Your country seems quite capable of staying out of trouble. What are you doing right?