Was the war in Iraq a success?

Our initial mission was to find and remove all nuclear bombs supposedly hidden in Iraq, but as proven over the years of actually being in there we soon realized there were no weapons to be found. So our initial mission to go into Iraq did fail since we found no weapons, but we did turn the war into something to promote democracy. During the years of realization the war in Iraq took a turn and we embarked of different escapades other than searching for bombs. We decided to hunt down and kill their terrorist leaders and incorporate democracy into their soon to be new government. I think if we went into Iraq with the initial plans of taking out their terrorist leaders would of been a better strategized plan then searching for bombs. The only benefits I see from this war happened closer to the end of it then opposed to its beginning. I do think the over outcome of the war was a failure only due to the fact that it costed an absurd and unreasonable amount of time, money and lives.