was regime change.

Maybe there could have been a coup and some reasonably brutal general could have taken over (and such things were tried throughout the 90s), but weakening the Saddam regime just made room for Iran's influence.  Thus the hesitation on the part of the realists to do much beyond contain Saddam.  It took the freedom-agenda fantasists to cut the Gordian knot, invade and drop this brutal mess on the American taxpayers.  

The mess Clinton made?  How about the military aid Reagan gave him throughout the 80s?  How about the real politick decision that Bush Sr. made to betray the Shhite uprisings in `91.  Clinton's policy was essentially Bush Sr. policy until his last days in office.  What about the decades-long move to create lily pad bases in the Middle East to replicate the hegemonic position the US enjoys in Europe and East Asia?  There are times when there is no happy and bloodless solution to a balance of power crisis.  Sorry, but one soldier barfing up a Fox News talking point doesn't actually mean anything.  It's just fucking sad.