Opinion: Sixteen years ago we invaded Iraq. And what did we learn?
By Paul Waldman Paul Waldman Opinion writer covering politics Email Bio Follow Opinion writer March 20 at 3:20 PM Sixteen years ago today, on March 20, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq. After a months-long propaganda campaign the likes of which the country had never seen, a majority of Americans supported going to war.
Democrats learned a number of things. Many of them, including figures like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, learned that trying to look “strong” by supporting military adventurism makes you look anything but. And they learned that their worst fears about what such adventurism can bring came true. It was particularly difficult for Jeb Bush, that president’s brother. But like him, most of the candidates fell back on saying something like, “If we knew then what we know now we wouldn’t have invaded,” putting the blame solely on faulty intelligence without questioning the ideas and the foolish arrogance that actually took us to war.
After all, whenever Trump talks about the U.S. military role around the world, he usually says that other countries should be paying us more for the maintenance of our hegemony, whether it’s NATO or South Korea or anyone else. Everything is transactional, and if Trump can’t see an immediate short-term gain, he’s not interested.
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