Last month marked the 19th anniversary of the creation of our government’s boastful “Shock and Awe” slogan, the term we used to start our attack on Iraq – an invasion that resulted in the killing of over one million Iraqis, by some estimates, and the death of over 4,000 American service members.

Sadly, our justification for going to war was based on a lie.

Iraq posed no threat to the United States. There were no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to be found. Still, we went ahead and destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan, and supported the decimation of Libya. We also invaded Syria.

Why? Because American politicians and pundits were trying to prove that the United States is a superpower that can bully other countries for hegemonic objectives. Simply put, those bloodthirsty zealots didn’t like Hussein in Iraq or Ghaddafi in Libya. And they sure can’t stomach Assad of Syria. So, we attacked them under the pretense of fighting terrorism.

Sadly, Russia has now followed America’s playbook, attacking Ukraine, a sovereign nation that offers no imminent threat to it, to expand its power.

Putin claims the country is led by Nazis, thugs, and terrorists. He accuses Ukraine of having WMDs. Sound familiar? I guess Putin is saying that if the U.S. can invade nations, so can Russia.

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