When discussing the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, it’s important to recall the circumstances that led to the conflict.

With Vladimir Putin’s planned two-day war to topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government now in its third month and Russian casualties piling into the tens of thousands, concerns abound that Putin might take increasingly drastic steps to alter the disastrous situation he faces on the battlefield. To prevent those grim prospects—or at least contain their effects—President Joe Biden should turn to the playbook his predecessors drafted.

Robert Draper’s book To Start a War details why the Bush administration made a gravely mistaken decision, despite having clearly met the jus ad bellum criteria of “right intention.”

Dozens of civilians have been killed in the latest chemical-weapons attack in Syria. Western governments blame Syrian strongman Bashar Assad for the assault.