The 9/11 terrorist attacks obliged the U.S. government to begin a war to destroy al Qaeda. To do otherwise would have only invited further terrorist attacks, causing significant global political and economic instability and the loss of many more American lives.

Sadly, that truth is one that Bernie Sanders does not understand. We saw Sanders’s silliness at the Democratic presidential debate on Thursday. Asked whether he was wrong to vote to authorize the war in Afghanistan, Sanders said, “Only one person, my good friend, Barbara Lee, was right on that issue. She was the only person in the House to vote against the war in Afghanistan. She was right. I was wrong.”