As the third anniversary of military intervention in Iraq approaches, we asked readers for your views on where it all went wrong. What lessons has the world learnt? What should be done now? Many opponents of the war believe that the dark consequences for Iraq, the region and indeed the world, are insurmountable. Others, supporters or not of the war, believe in the possibility of a fully functioning democracy and insist on the necessity of coalition forces on the ground in promoting peace and securing a brighter future for the country. What’s clear from the impassioned responses we received is that three years on the question of Iraq is still a dividing issue. The extracts below provide a glimpse at some of the varied opinions expressed.

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What has the world learnt? That American military power is not as good as the US thinks it is. What should be done now? A carefully executed but complete withdrawal within 18 months. Where did it all go wrong? Before it started. We didn't know it at the time, but neither Bush nor Blair had studied history. Neither had planned properly for the occupation or anticipated an insurgency. I supported the war initially but I have modified my views. I would not support such an invasion again, under any circumstance.
Paul Dettman

A former colleague who had insight into Douglas Feith’s internal intelligence operation told me that the scandal would be greater than Iran-Contra if its details ever got out completely. Fortunately for Bush, sadly for the World, the Republicans who control Senate and House intelligence oversight have and will continue to preclude serious inquiry and investigation.
John T Tyler, Jr
Former Defence Official & Former Director, Defence Planning, US Mission to NATO

The US must stay the course in Iraq. It was always going to be harder than expected; every confrontation is. We cannot expect US type democracy, but having a vote and selecting representatives must be better than what they had. Every country in the world deals with pressure groups, political parties, religious groups, elites and peasants. The sooner the Iraqis come to the realisation that they cannot have a pure Sunni, Shiite or Kurdish state, the better.
Patrick Oliver-Kelley

If you take out a dictator you create a vacuum and no one knows what will rush in. As the US Ambassador said recently: “If you open Pandora's box you don't know what will rush out.” This isn't said with hindsight. Opponents of the war said both these things firmly before the war started. It is much more difficult to know what to do now. We have created chaos. Will it be worse if we leave or better? The lessons of History are not so clear. The US left Lebanon and eventually a fragile settlement appeared. They left The Horn of Africa and chaos still reigns.
David Gilbert

I supported intervention in Iraq, and do not regret doing so. Regime change was justification enough. Iraq could yet become a stable, functioning democracy. Pulling out now will not help this to happen, indeed it would be another gross betrayal.
Chris Clark

Not only did we in the West lose the war, we also lost the most important battle, the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. This was a war planned by a cabal which has managed to seize defeat from the jaws of victory through lack of foresight and any real sense of intelligent thought.
Mohammed Shuab

I supported the war at the time, not because I believed the 45 minute nuclear strike scenario, but because I helped elect the current government and I believed they must have been privy to facts that we weren't. In short, I trusted them. I believe now that history will judge that Blair and Bush made the most calamitous decision of the last century.
Keith Strachan

When Bush publicly conceded, with a shrug and a sigh, that “more or less” 30,000 civilians had died in Iraq, I think it went some way to illustrate his total emotional detachment from the campaign. Rounding lives to the nearest 10,000 with such insouciance must make the still suffering families in Iraq feel very grateful for their “liberation”.
James Downer

I supported the war for two reasons. To get rid of Saddam Hussein and to atone for our constant interference in the Middle East by doing something to clear up the mess. Good intentions however are not enough. I was wrong. Once again we have made things worse. We, the supporters of the war, made a bad mistake and forgot the accumulated wisdom of the last century – invasion rarely makes things better. It is now obvious that a waiting game, with support for any democratic stirrings in Iraq, would probably have worked much better. Mr Blair will not do so, but I apologise to the Iraqi People.
Anne Gill

The effects of the US/British-led invasion in Iraq are still unfolding so it is premature to talk about the lessons of the war in a conclusive manner. However, it is evident that the war is a good indicator on the pitfalls of wishful thinking in terms of foreign policy. It has stopped in its tracks the arrogance of pre-emptive invasion as a guiding policy for the Bush White House. From the tempo of things in the region, it may have given more impetus to Iran's desire for nuclear capability. If this materializes, it may make Israel sit up and take the task of peace-making with the Palestinians more seriously.
E C Ejiogu, Ph.D, University of Maryland

My waking hours have changed in three years,
I now awake to a sense of foreboding.
Of hearing how many lives have been lost,
In a market place,
By a bus stop.
In a shrine,
By the side of a road,
In a ditch,
A bullet to the head or a body charred.
No dignity in death.
I try to see a better future, because I cannot see a better present.
I wonder if the past would now be better.
I wonder what was true and what was false, and what is true and what is false.
What legal and mandate and intelligence really means now.
And who really was the great Satan,
And who now is the great Satan.
And where exactly does the axis of evil really live?
I wonder why we hate so much,
And have so little respect for the other,
And why we don’t…can’t …won’t… listen to each other.
And how much sadness and grief is engraved in the name of democracy,
And how much sadness and grief prevails in the faces of the families
Of the dead.
And I wonder how people sleep at night
Under their Stars and Stripes and Union Jacks.
Nicky Binder, London

Three key lessons:
1. There's a world of difference between a reason and a pretext;
2. International opinion does not regard being persistently irritating as a just cause for war;
3. The right time to decide on an exit strategy is when you decide on an entry strategy.
Keith Aitken, Edinburgh

As a 60 year-old Jewish American, the opportunity and fellow feeling I have experienced in my life make me proud of my nation. But as a 60-year-old Jewish American, the murderous imperial stance of the United States makes me ashamed that my nation fails to equally respect human rights worldwide.
Robert Cohen, Oregon

The Iraq war did not go wrong. It was wrong in intention, conception and execution and it has gone exactly where so many of us predicted it would go. Failing regime change in the US on a revolutionary scale – at present unimaginable – it will continue to be at the centre of the conflict in the Middle East with unforeseeable consequences for the world. Nothing of value has been learned. The western power structure, including the media, remains arrogant and blind. Violence will continue regardless of whether or not US and British troops are officially withdrawn. American bases and western mercenaries will remain. As a British voter, I was and remain deeply ashamed at the part my government has played.
Angus Wright

In February 2003, my teenager and I stood with "Peace on Earth - NO WAR ON IRAQ" signs outside the West Town Mall, Knoxville. We had a similar sign nailed to the tree in our front yard. We took it down after getting a threatening letter, accompanied by a US flag, in our mailbox. What to do now? Get out as soon as possible. Appeal to the UN to have a force on stand-by, to intervene in case of genocide; have a US force on stand-by in Kuwait, to render assistance, in case of genocide. We started this and we are responsible, but get out now.
Dr Agatha Bardoel, Tennessee

I wasn't a supporter of the Iraq war and am not now. I believe that ultimately, Saddam should have been removed from power, but there needed to be more effort to support the Iraqi people to create their own political alternative. The vacuum created in Iraq by the war has dramatically destabilised the Middle East, opening the way for all manner of different religious and political organisations to aim for supremacy with the masses and to redraw alliances across existing borders. The world will continue to pay a heavy price for this lunatic adventure.
Paul Philpot, Surrey

Aside from ethical and legal considerations, the invasion of Iraq has proved disastrous for strategic reasons. By removing Saddam Hussein and allowing anarchy and a weakening of the state to take hold in Iraq, the US has inadvertently weakened its position in the region, and has contributed to what could well be a far greater security risk at the intersection between the EU, Russia and China. Politicians would do well to remember that economic gain, and the advantageous positioning of Western multinationals, cannot be the only driving force in formulating foreign policy. Deeper understanding of the historical relationships between states within particular regions might go further towards ensuring a coherent foreign policy than the nebulous decisions arising from individual ideals and the religious commitments of the current batch of Anglo-American leaders.
Tracy, London

What has the world learnt? That stability is a prerequisite for democracy, not the other way round.
James Christensen

A far smarter and more effective response to 9/11 would have been to build on the sympathy of the Muslim world, not to react in the utterly predictable way they did, which was manifestly, precisely what the aggressors wanted.
Angela Neustatter

My stance in March 2003 was against the war. This had nothing to do with pacifism, nor any guilt about “western interference in the region”. It struck me that the government I had voted for and to which I paid my taxes had not satisfied two key criteria. If it was going to send troops to kill and be killed, my view was that there should be a good reason and that this should be seen to be legitimate in terms of international law. Otherwise I saw such action as likely to rebound on the interests of anyone who lived in England. Tragically, I was proved right when my neighbour, among many others, was killed on 7 July.
John Papadachi

Mistakes were made in the build-up over the justification of the Iraq war and the failure to gain sufficient international and domestic support before embarking on the war. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but many of us predicted some of the consequences we are now seeing more than three years ago. It is vital we learn from the Iraq experience.
Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting