McClatchy News has the interesting editorial piece Commentary: Iraq war taught us a lesson.

But while the consensus now is that Iraq was a mistake, will we have the sense to apply that lesson to the next proposal for regime change, the next cakewalk? We hear cries for greater U.S. involvement in the Syrian uprising, for a pre-emptive strike to destroy Iran’s capability to create a nuclear weapon.

We should recall the assumptions about Iraq, the complacency and the unwillingness to question those prodding us to go to war. Don’t forget history, lest we repeat it.

No politician today dares pose the possibility that if we took another path other than imposing the strictest sanctions that are humanly possible on Iran we might actually make more progress to our supposed goal of a non-nuclear weapon Iran.

No politician today dares mention the possibility that a different tack on North Korea might get them to turn in a different direction than the one they are taking as we impose stricter and stricter sanctions.

No politician dares ask the question as to whether the strategy we used in Cuba, Venezuela, and now in Iran and North Korea so unsuccessfully might be trying to teach us a lesson that we might want to learn.

So what lessons have we actually learned?