The war in Iraq needs to be thought of as a deterrent more than a war on terrorism. By liberating the Iraqi people and ridding the area of a cruel dictator (who supported terrorists) we send the message that if you support terrorists than we (the US) will not stand for it. The deterrent is similar to having the nuclear weapons that we (US) used in the cold war and to the present day to deter nations from attacking us. Since the enemy these days are not Nations rather they are individuals, makes the weapons useless as a deterrent. The mixture of having individuals not a nation to fight against and the fact that many nations have nuclear technology, makes nuclear weapons as a deterrent in effective. So now, we go to war in Iraqi (the small guy) and relative easy country to fight so to speak. This is now a deterrent, our new nuclear weapon. By toppling Saddam, the US send the message that we will even go to war to protect our country. This a scare tactic to show, other countries like Iran, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia, that if you support terrorists, the US will not stand for it and will go to any lengths to protect our freedoms of our country. The nations of the world see the war and think we dont want to fight against the US and then start to rid there own countries of the terrorist scum. So in essence end justifies the means.