Seeing Iraqi men and women step forward to vote their beliefs - people who would most likely be tortured and killed in decades past for even expressing their opinions - is a touching picture indeed. And the election day violence itself was not horrific - for Iraq, of course.

A recent newsmagazine cover not only stated that Iraqi democracy had been finally won, but backed up the statement with that infamous picture of George W. Bush with the "Mission Accomplished" banner so shamelessly unfurled behind him on the Navy carrier.

So, if you are one who predicted that Iraq was a prime time foreign policy disaster - as I certainly did - perhaps it is time to move into gear into the newest chapter of the Iraq war book.

Unlike some famous, but unnamable, political figures who could not seem to decide whether they voted for the war or against it, for funding the war or for the war without funding it, or just for the Afghan war or for the Afghan war but only if it did or didn't go into Pakistan, yes, I was against it. And despite Sunday's moving elections, I remain against it.

When I spent considerable amounts of time in Iraq during the 1970s and '80s, I was driven close to madness by the silence of the people. I don't mean quietness of speech, or calmness of manner, or tranquility of mien. I mean utter, total, drear silence. Except for government interviews, no one would speak to you - at all. It was very much like the Soviet Union in those days, only more so.

Only once was I invited to a home. In this case, the home of a well-known and more or less government-approved writer. We all pretty much sat there for two hours, barely exchanging a sentence, while we wondered who would turn out to be the inevitable informer in our midst.

So for me, after we invaded Iraq, it seemed wondrous to see Iraqis actually SPEAK! But even that agreeable surprise was not enough. This war was, and is, still a mistake.

First, there were all the lies the American people were fed: Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction to be loosed soon upon the West! The neocon idea that Iraq would easily become a democracy and, even more than that, would then help democratize the entire Middle East. The presumption that we were "fighting al-Qaida there so we would not have to fight it at home."

These lies are as false today as they were yesterday. Saddam, a monster of magnitude, had boasted of such weapons only in order to terrify unfriendly and acquisitive neighbors like Iran. Nor is there any evidence whatsoever that these elections are having any influence on the rest of the region. And al-Qaida - was it ever in Iraq in any serious numbers?

Then there is the sheer cost of Iraq. One-idea fanatics like the American neocons don't bother their important little selves to think about the cost of their wars. Yet anyone else can rather easily figure out that these wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan have contributed decisively to our financial collapse - and will continue to.

The International Monetary Fund reported recently that at the turn of the 21st century, the United States was producing 32 percent of the world's gross domestic product, only to end the first decade producing 24 percent of the GDP. This marked the most dramatic decline in relative power of any nation in history except for the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War.

Add to this the degree to which the George W. Bush administration's and the neocons' obsession with going to war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11, deflected them from finding and defeating al-Qaida, the true authors of 9/11. If we fail in Afghanistan, there is little question that that failure will be due to our detouring through Baghdad and Basra to find al-Qaida Central.

New York Times writer Dexter Filkins reminisced recently in The New Republic about how we essentially threw Afghanistan away in the beginning with our obsession with defeating Saddam.

"It is useful, if a little sad," he wrote, "to recall just how complete the American-led victory was in the autumn of 2001. By December, the Taliban had vanished from Kabul, Kandahar, and much of the countryside. Afghans celebrated by flinging their turbans and dancing in the streets."

It is curious in America today - in a dramatic reversal of the parsimoniousness of our Founding Fathers - that we spend so little time thinking of what is valuable to us and what we can practically afford to do. Instead, we strike out in all directions, as if the Lord God Almighty had given us a Promised Land of Holy Credit Cards that will never come due.

And so, when something wrong goes somewhat right, like Sunday's elections in Iraq, we say, "Whew, it wasn't as bad as we thought," or, "Wow, we finally lucked out!" That's simply not enough for a great country like ours.