The Left’s Fake Wars and the Addiction to False Pretexts

From Iraq to Minneapolis, false moral certainties have replaced facts, turning tragedy into pretext and unrest into strategy—fake wars waged at home with real consequences. When President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the justification was presented as unambiguous. Saddam Hussein, Americans were told, possessed weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent threat. The claim proved false. By 2004, the United States was forced to concede that no such weapons existed, and the central pretext for war collapsed. At the time, much of the left opposed the invasion—and with hindsight, they were right to...