All the evidence suggests it was basically what it looked like; I've yet to see any good evidence otherwise, and the alternative theories are inconsistent with the existing evidence and themselves. I think people go in for the them due to well understood psychological phenomena like confirmation bias and apophenia. I also think there's an element of what I think is one of the main motivators for theories like Freemasonry and the New World Order stuff: people are frightened of (perhaps subconsciously), or else in some way biased in principle against, the thought that the world is chaotic and that stuff happens for no particular 'reason'. It's in some way comforting to think that large events are understood by a group of people and have some underlying order and purpose, no matter how sinister, rather than being the random results of ubiquitous human ignorance and incompetence.

It was shocking and tragic, and what followed after was ridiculous and condemnable. I think foreign policy is healing, though. Recent events have made me optimistic. The UN essentially prevented a massacre and then helped oust a dictator in Libya. I was also struck by the fact that I've seen protesters with American flags, and in Egypt I even saw a placard that said 'yes we can too'. In any case the Bush doctrine has been thoroughly destroyed. Even if Iraq was about setting up a democracy, (which it wasn't, it was always supposed to be about domestic defence, and that has of course been exposed as bullshit), the Middle East has now clearly shown that revolutions can, and must, come from the people. It's really fascinating to speculate on what Iraq would be doing right now if we hadn't done what we did.