John Bolton is proof that Trump has abandoned his best campaign promise

Prepare for dumb wars

John Bolton
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Fifteen years after the invasion of Iraq, a Republican president who called the war a "big, fat mistake" has named one of its leading proponents as his national security adviser.

If one wanted to make the case that U.S. policymakers have learned little from their biggest foreign-policy blunder of the past two decades, John Bolton's appointment would be Exhibit A. Bolton, set to take the job in April from current national security adviser H.R. McMaster after Trump tweeted the news on Thursday night, played an important role in shaping prewar intelligence and seems to be itching for a repeat elsewhere.

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W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.