Now they have to clean up the results as best they can, and if they can make it out of there with a secular, democratic government in place, I'd say it was a success.

Yes, but there are people declaring it a success already. The war itself cannot possibly be construed as successful based on the original goals.

I agree with you that *IF* a stable democratic government is created in Iraq, I can definitely see calling the overall net effect a success. Of course I would consider bringing democracy to North Korea or China much more of a success, but we can't just go in and kick the asses of those countries, can we?

Also, if you look at the U.S.'s history in building democracies, we're not exactly batting a thousand.