Twenty years after American troops invaded Iraq and embarked on a costly war this country came to regret, the U.S. is again flirting with international conflict—this time with Russia and China. Of course, not every military mistake of the past is comparable to conflicts of the present, but we should be clear that a lot of bad thinking was behind the Iraq War and ensure that political leaders engage in better quality due diligence as they engage in today's higher-stakes face-offs with nuclear-armed nations.
After 9/11, the Bush administration persuaded willing lawmakers and an angry public that Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was complicit in the terrorist attacks and posed a continuing threat to the United States. In authorizing military action, Congress's joint resolution cited "Iraq's ongoing support for international terrorist groups combined with its development of weapons of mass destruction."
