Ten years ago, in March 2003, our country went to war with Iraq. There were two reasons given: that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and that Saddam had links to al-Qaeda. The mistake about the weapons claim is now history; less discussed is how ridiculous the second claim was. America was Bin Laden's enemy only by association; his real target was secular leaders in the Arab world like Hussein and the Saudi family.

I voted for Bush in 2000, and during the buildup to the war, I was telling everyone who would listen: Look, the man's a Texan. He's a born poker player. He's got to make the bluff look credible to get Saddam to buckle under, but there ain't no way the man is crazy enough to actually send in the troops. Surely his dad has informed him what a quagmire that would turn into.

Boy, did I ever get that wrong. You just read one of the significant reasons I became a Democrat (and a big fan of Andrew Bachevich, who has the clearest vision of what our foreign policy should be in the current century).

One of the unfortunate outcomes of that war is that, unlike Vietnam, we still have people in power and with influence that didn't learn their lesson. During the next month, you will be hearing a lot of revisionist history from these folks. This article by Peter Van Buren sets the record straight, and this post warns us to keep our guard up. Let's make sure no one forgets how much that unnecessary war has damaged America and the world.