John Howard’s 2003 march to war with Iraq appears to have taught our current parliament little

Coalition senators have offered justifications and vague regrets for John Howard’s decision to take part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Photograph: The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media/Getty Images

As Australian politicians weighed in on the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, there was precious little proof they had absorbed any major lessons from the controversial war.

Almost as soon as the Senate opened at 10am on Monday, the Greens tried to suspend standing orders to debate a motion that “in 2003, Australia was a part of a United States-led coalition which illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq, with catastrophic consequences for Iraq and the broader region”.