Why don't conservatives understand the difference?

between supporting Democracy-seeking rebels in an internationally and UN-backed mission and simply going after someone the president's daddy didn't like? I'm not saying that Saddam Hussein wasn't a bad guy, or just as evil as Qaddafi, but when we went into Iraq, Saddam wasn't really doing anything new, whereas Qaddafi had just bombed rebels less than 24 hours after calling a cease-fire.