Ace, I'm reading your posts and it sounds as if you are trying to demonstrate that the use of force can sometimes be justified. Rest assured that you don't have to make that point - most of those who opposed the decision to go into Iraq are not pacifists.
What willravel is getting at is the question of Iraq in particular and not self-defense or self-interest in general. Here he explains why the war was unjustified based on the criteria that you yourself laid out.
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None of those were met in the case of Iraq. Not by a mile, even.
1) As I've stated, Iraq was not a threat to the US in any way shape or form.
2) No reasonable person could look at all the information available in 2003 (and I can post it if you'd like) and come to the conclusion that the US was in any danger.
3) We were the instigator.
4) Excessive? 1,200,000 dead Iraqis and many still don't have water and power 5 years later.
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You keep saying that you are comfortable with people acting as they see fit so long as they are willing to be held accountable, and that is a completely fair point. But holding the administration accountable is precisely what will is doing now. How else would you like him to do it, if not by speaking out as he and others do? Will criticizes the way the decision to go to war was made and you shrug it off by saying that the administration can do what it likes and 'ask questions later'. Well, when is 'later', exactly?