My break from the right had many causes, but it began over the Iraq War of 2003. I have never wavered in thinking the decision to overthrow the government of Saddam Hussein was a terrible mistake'basically, the geopolitical equivalent of committing negligent homicide in an act of drunk driving. I came to that view very early, before the war had begun, at a time when I assumed Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. (I thought he could be deterred'and doubted the post-invasion attempt to foster a stable democracy would be successful.) My views obviously didn't soften or reverse once we discovered there were no hidden stockpiles of weapons. Hussein had been bluffing'to deter Iran and other regional powers'and the bluff turned out to be far too convincing for the dictator's own good. Over the remainder of the Bush administration and then the entirety of the Obama administration, I listened to leading members of the Republican Party and its media cheerleaders stake out a position...
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