An important moto that we all know is "the truth shall set you free".
Investigating and learning just how we got into this war which is both phase I and phase II is very important for the healing of this country. It is not about politics (as today's editorial from WaPo claims), who can get the most votes, or who can take the Senate or House in 2006 depending on how the Iraq war goes. Rather it is about learning the unvarnished TRUTH.
Our country is deeply divided and in turmoil. Greater than 65% of the country feels that we are on the wrong track. Why is that? It is because of the Iraq War. No matter how much the Bush administration tries to "blow back" and attack his critics, the American people deep down inside know that we were duped. We remember the coordinated parroted false lines of "mushroom clouds", "uranium from Niger", "aluminum tubes", and "Al Qaeda being connected to Saddam".
We see >2000 American troops dead, countless Iraqi civilians dying including children being blown up while trying to get candy, terrified captives just before they were beheaded, prisoners being tortured, and terrorism now being exported out of Iraq which is now terrorism ground zero when it wasn't before.
The American people say "STOP! we didn't sign up for this. We went into Iraq so that we wouldn't get blown up by Saddam. We went into to protect ourselves but now we are in graver danger. What happened to the WMD's? Was this all just Bullshit?! And now Bush is saying it was to create democracy in Iraq. Hey Bush, saying this now, YOU are re-writing history not the Democrats. Hey Mr. President, democracy doesn't come at the end of a M-16 (as Paul Hackett says), but comes from the blood, sweat, and tears from internal strife.
The American people are mad and they will never believe you again. You have lost your credibility and will never get it again.
America will never heal unless we know the truth. The Iraq War is like an abscess (bare with me for I am a physician). If you just give it antibiotics (ie just talk about moving forward and not looking at the past), you can contain it but it will fester and eventually EXPLODE leaving a deep dark hole. Instead you must lance this abscess (ie investigate the truth of how we got into this war), drain it (ie. expose any manipulation or exaggerating that the Bush administration did to get us into this war), give antibiotics too (ie create a comprehensive plan to get the hell out), and then it will heal.
We need healing in this country and we need to release this deep anger that is in the American people's psche. The only way to do this is to learn the truth, the good, the bad and the ugly.