Military guys/girls/family/any body what are your views on Iraq war?

[L.Huber/m16/d.eagle]

personally i think Saddam needed to be took down. i dont know if this is true or not but i heard he actually made human shields of dead soldiers? kinda sicking and very disrespectful to not only the person but his/her family. is that true?
what are your views of the war?
from what i see and hear, it seems were making alot of progress, is that true? and finally i have a freind of mine that was in the Army,im not sure if he's going back to Iraq but he said that Iraq is now a permant thing, no matter who takes presidency of country were not leaving, we might take some troops out but we will establish a permanant base, because Iraq is close to everything like Africa, Europe, Asia and we know its in the Middle east so it makes a perfect base in case something happens in any of these places and maybe trade, is this also true? it sounds very logical to me and would be a waste if we diddnt do this.
thx to all that our or have served the country.
yeah i can see where some of you guys/ girls come from when saying more presence in Iraq could mean more hostile to U.S.