However, the outcome seems to run into the opposite end.

In terms of terrorist threats, the war didn't make the United States safer, since Iraq has turned into a breeding ground for terrorists after the invasion.

The US intelligence community acknowledged in an assessment last July that the terror threat facing the country is growing and al Qaida is recovering.

Politically, the new Iraqi government is still unable to perform the basic functions for its people – secure the nation. And democracy is even a luxurious dream.

The biggest irony is the war didn't yield many strategic benefits for the United States.

On the contrary, it strengthened its chief adversary in the Mideast, Iran, which is more influential than ever in Iraq after the collapse of the Saddam regime.

A price too high

The only achieved objective of the war so far is the removal of Saddam, but some contend the price is just too high.

John Burns, a veteran reporter of the war, wrote in the New York Times, "at the fifth anniversary, the conflict's staggering burden is a rebuke to any who hoped Saddam's removal might be accomplished at acceptable price."

Just as he said, the price of the war is beyond the expectation of most Americans.

It is hard to believe that in the war's sixth year, the US troop level in Iraq is higher than that at the war's onset.

About 4,000 US soldiers have been killed and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died in persistent bombings and attacks that damaged infrastructure and tore apart communities in Iraq. A million or more Iraqis fled homes to neighboring countries.

The financial cost of the war, by some recent estimates, will rise above 650 billion US dollars this year and is on its way to perhaps 2 trillion dollars if the war drags on for another five years.

Moreover, the United States sees declining hard and soft powers.

The military, a pillar of US power, has been overstretched by the war. A poll of 3,400 US military officers by Foreign Policy magazine found that 88 percent agreed with the statement that the war in Iraq "has stretched the US military dangerously thin."

In terms of soft power, surveys find US popularity and respect slipping in most parts of the world as a result of the unpopular war.

Bush also paid huge political prices. The Republicans lost the 2006 midterm elections and his approval rating is hovering around 30 percent.