Well in fact it's probably more "the need to preserve the stability - whatever that means - of the region, particularly for the sake of another autocracy: Saudi Arabia"
Sure. But misguided all the same...and I don't know about you, but to me, the phrase "stability in the middle east" is one very large oxymoron. And hopefully, our leaders here are noticing that the Saudis are not our friends.
The US has most definitely made mistakes and bad foreign policy decisions. I'm just relieved that we're fixing this one. I don't know how much you follow the news from over here, but - believe it or not - there are many (what I like to call) pro-Saddam activists who argued that the fact that we are at least partly to blame for Saddam's control of Iraq was a reason not to do anything. No joke. That's the kind of twisted logic that our left uses.
Are there more people like you over there? I'm sure you know that "France" is a very bad word over here just at the moment - which really is too bad.
Maybe we can go back to liking each other again someday...