The biggest lie about Iraq is that it was somehow the incumbent's unilateral decision. Him and his bunch, anyhow.
In fact, it was a decision made by a power elite, to whom both political parties bow, resulting from foreign policies set in motion after the second world war. The place to begin to understand this history is with Owen Lattimore's book The Situation in Asia, written in service of the State Department in the late 1940s. It would be great to read a historical piece by one of the Kos inner circle, outlining the policy making process resulting in the terrible outcomes we witness today.
This process, based on the assumption that imperial control of the Third World was still feasible, and that the shift toward negotiation recommended by Lattimore was unnecessary, resulted in the consequences predicted by Lattimore. The situation is indeed out of imperial control. What we have is a ruling clsss without a real plan, desperate to create the opposite impression. What is needed is better leadership, but no one can lead unless supported by a strong base. This base cannot be found among those unwilling publicly to acknowledge their vast failures. This base must be the public at large.
For the public at large to form such a base of support, for Obama I should think, it must fully undersand what is at stake. This requires some serious history lessons.