Marshall Wittmann recently wrote about the Iraq occupation,

We also have achieved much. We have toppled one of the most odious tyrannies of the post WW II period. We have enabled 26 million men and women to participate in democratic elections. Liberating a people used to be a progressive project.

Yes, but the core point that consistently gets lost -- years later -- is lies and purposeful deception were used as means to an end. Is it right for a U.S. president to achieve desirable ends via undesirable means? If so, then we are lost.

What's stopping any president -- including this one -- from doing it again and again? Are we to allow it solely on the "trust me" promise? Is this how the new America works? If so, then the Iran-Contra scandal was actually not so scandalous, right? The deception there was just as well-meant, noble, and pro-democracy (we were told), no?

It's ludicrous. The means then were wrong and the means leading up to Iraq were just as wrong. Because the outcome is eventually perceived as worthy and justified does not then absolve and make it right. For the American people to not understand this moral premise is shameful and frankly a damning statement of our collective thinking.