Iran

Yeglesais:

I basically agree with what Atrios says here, but I think it behooves people to spend the greater part of their time emphasizing the degree to which Bush has made the situation worse rather than quibbling about exactly how bad the situation is.

I was just thinking that the fact we invaded a country based on an almost irrational fear that they would spread nukes (Iraq) has also helped lead Iran down this path. The only deterrent world wide from an American invasion seems to be nuclear weapons (and had we thought about it that way, we'd have known the Iraq/nuke hype was crap from the start). So now that we've shown Iran what we do to axis of evil members with no nukes, they certainly have the reason and desire to develop that deterrent.

Had we dealt with Iran first, and allowed the inspectors and airstrikes to continue to contain Sadaam in Iraq, well, it's possible none of this happens.