Jun 10, 2014 2 min read

In her newly published memoir, “Hard Choices,” Hillary Clinton admits she made a mistake when, as a senator, she voted in 2002 to authorize the war in Iraq.

“I thought I had acted in good faith,” according to Clinton. “And I wasn’t alone in getting it wrong. But I still got it wrong.”

We were reminded Tuesday of just how grave a misstep that was, following reports an al-Qaeda-affiliated group took command of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Police and soldiers were said to be fleeing alongside citizens who have been running from fighting that has gone on for a little less than a week. Government offices, the television station and the airport were all in rebel hands.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. When the United States marched into Iraq in March 2003, we were promised the war would be quick and tidy and an Iraq free of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny would be a beacon of stability and democracy in the region. Some officials were so confident they were busy conjuring plans for a flat tax to be instituted there, even as the country outside was spinning out of control.

The likes of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld should follow Clinton’s lead and confess to their own grave miscalculations.