On Feb. 28, 2003, a few weeks before launching the “shock and awe” aerial assault on Iraq, President George W. Bush outlined his vision for “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” His administration had “set a goal,” he told the crowd at the American Enterprise Institute’s annual dinner: “We will not allow the triumph of hatred and violence in the affairs of men.”

An ambitious enough goal, you’d think, but he didn’t stop there: “A liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region,” Bush insisted, “it would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations” in the Middle East.