There are a few things worth fighting a war against, but almost no things worth fighting a war for.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

There have been far more unjustifiable than justifiable wars in the history of humanity.

Nearly always, the justifiable ones have been the ones fought against something rather than for something - the second world war fought against Nazism, the Kosovo war fought against the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, and so on - rather than ones fought for something.

The "against" part of the invasion of Iraq - remove Saddam Hussein from power - was accomplished reasonably quickly and successfully. The "for" part - establish a functioning state in Iraq - was doomed from square one.

There are very few goods great enough to justify the harm a war does, but some evils so great that fighting a war to prevent them is worthwhile.

[rockymountaindem]

1. On the flip side

one could argue that WWII was fought for freedom and democracy (at least by some of us) and that the Kosovo intervention was undertaken for the promotion/preservation of human rights.