“Whether George W. Bush was the worst president in American history will be long debated, but his decision to invade Iraq is easily the worst foreign policy decision ever made by an American president,” writes biographer Jean Edward Smith in a scathing verdict on the Bush presidency.

Yet, Bush and his administration officials have not been held accountable for their disastrous decision to invade Iraq, which was based on lies and deceit. 

Across the Atlantic, Britain has concluded a seven-year investigation into its government’s decision to follow Bush to war in Iraq.

The British Chilcot report documented that the decision to invade Iraq was driven by “flawed intelligence” about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction.

Probe chairman John Chilcot said then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned by policy experts about the regional instability the report would cause.

Even traditional U.S. allies like France sounded the alarms against the war.

Bush and Blair muted all voices of wisdom. Their recklessness has caused tremendous misery and destruction that can be felt across the world today. 

The invasion of Iraq, de-Baathification and disbanding the Iraqi army created the foundation on which ISIS built its global terrorist network.

Instability is contagious. The Iraqi civil war caused by the invasion fanned the flames of sectarianism across the Muslim world and sparked unrest across the Middle East.

Beyond the rise of ISIS, Bush’s Iraq misadventure solidified the “clash of civilizations” narrative, which empowers extremists. 

The Bush administration officials marketed the war with lies and fabrications. They accused secular Saddam Hussein of working with religious al-Qaeda, playing on Americans’ fears and emotions in the aftermath of 9/11. They said Iraqis had weapons of mass destruction. The WMDs were never found.

After invading Iraq, the Bush administration created an army of potential insurgents by rendering the Iraqi troops, who mostly surrendered without a fight, unemployed.

The fabric of Iraqi society was ripped apart. Terrorism became a daily reality in the once prosperous country that was the dawn of civilization.

The United States also suffered greatly from the invasion. Close to 4,500 American soldiers died in Iraq. The war cost American taxpayers more than $2 trillion ($2,000 billion), according to the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. The United States’ standing in the world was diminished.

No investigation was ever launched into the lies, mistakes and deliberate wrongdoings of Bush administration officials. 

The neocons who destroyed Iraq and set the world on fire for personal and ideological agendas were never prosecuted or even investigated. 

President Obama failed to commission America’s own Chilcot Report, just as his Justice Department ignored torture authorizers’ transgressions against the U.S. Constitution.

However, the world remembers George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner after the fall of Iraq.