I was actually referring to (and leading into the direction) the economic stagnation that followed, in large part due to uncertainty and dread surrounding the ongoing war, which had to be "fixed" by trying to stimulate the economy on with very low interest rates, which led to the housing bubble, which, combined with a massively increased government debt, fights over the debt ceiling, and general political and economic instability of the US, at least in small part contributed to the recession we had in 2008, and the current decline that we can't seem to get ourselves out of (is that good for connecting the dots?) Yes, I'm saying if US didn't spend $3 trillion to invade Iraq, it would have been much better off.