Today is the tenth anniversary of our invasion of Iraq in March 19, 2003. Please think for a moment about the impact that war had on:

• Our armed forces
• Iraq
• The countries around Iraq
• Our standing in the world
• The U. S. treasury

Ten years ago, many commentators said, before the war even started, that going to war with Iraq would be the biggest strategic blunder we had ever committed. When you look at current politics in the region, from Damascus to Tehran, you can see that they were right. We have never made a bigger mistake, and we will not recover from this one.

Also this week: The Republican National Committee came out with one more self assessment that reports on what the party has to do to win the next election. We don’t want another disaster, these reports say. Not one of them says, “We should have let Ron Paul speak at our convention.” Not one of them says, “We should not have snubbed his delegates at our convention.” Not one them says, “Let’s embrace the libertarian wing of our party, to make them feel welcome. Let’s offer voters a libertarian alternative, because that’s the direction our country must go, soon.”

That would be too risky. If you want to be a mainstream party, you cannot go running off with the crackpots.