"I said to [George W. Bush], even before he entered Iraq:

[herding cats]

5. Omar Sharif said in a 2004 interview to the Guardian:

"This whole business of wanting to put democracy in the Middle East is total rubbish. It will never happen." He believes Arabs are too poor and too tribal. "There is no such thing as democracy for a tribal people," he says. "The moment they turn their backs and leave Iraq there will be the most bloody civil war in the history of the world. They will kill each other, the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shia. They will kill each other completely; they will eliminate each other."

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/mar/22/features.timdowling

I'm sure the Bush admin had people telling them the same thing, they had to know better and just chose either not to care, or not to listen. So, people died and continue to die who wouldn't have otherwise. But hey, the war has made a lot of money for military contractors, and big oil rode a wave of massive profits for a decade. Billionaires were made from that war, so at least there's that.