An Irrefutable Argument Against the War in Iraq?

Here's an argument against the war in Iraq, which seems irrefutable.

We can justify Afghanistan. When we first went in, I was afraid we were going to blow the hell out of everything; we handled it better than I’d thought. Some now argue that we had to go into Iraq to teach potential enemies of the United States a lesson. (Since the WMD argument seems to have fallen out of favor for some reason.) They argue that if we hadn't, for example, Iran wouldn't have cried uncle about their nukes program. I think they’re dead wrong.

I'm sure countries like Iran and North Korea noticed that we threw our weight around in Afghanistan, too. So, imagine if instead of going to Iraq, we'd sent more troops to Afghanistan to look for Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda and sent all the money to Afghanistan to really help rebuild it and to encourage democracy there--instead of sending the billions upon billions we're currently sending to Iraq.

Can anyone really argue that things wouldn't be better off in Afghanistan? Can anyone really argue that it's not at least *more likely* in that scenario that we'd've captured Bin Laden by now? Can anyone argue that even if we'd sent half the troops to Afghanistan that we sent to Iraq (and stayed out of Iraq) that Afghanistan wouldn't be a safer place for democracy now. Wouldn't it be likely that far fewer American/coalition lives would've been taken by now? Wouldn't we be more likely to have the will of the world behind us?

These thoughts just seem inarguable. So, why don't we hear them more often?

Iraq was a misguided distraction, pure and simple. Now that we're there, obviously, we can't afford to pull out. But Bush and company were wrong-headed in taking us there. If we wanted to create a showcase for democracy, why couldn't it be Afghanistan? I can't believe that people have really brought into the neo-conservative's smoke and mirrors that brought Iraq into the forefront after 9/11 and has left Afghanistan all but forgotten.

Look at your favorite newspaper or news site. Count the mentions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Far more mentions of Iraq, right? How did we let that happen?

Christopher Hitchens. Andrew Sullivan. The entire writing staff of the National Review. How do you respond?