We have been studying history and relearning old lessons. This is never easy. January's riot at the Capitol and the second impeachment of a single sitting president were unique, yet the discord and division that preceded them is not. Three decades after Operation Desert Storm, it is easy to forget that Americans were hardly united about committing to that conflict. Some 183 representatives in the House and 47 in the Senate voted against authorizing military force to compel Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait. The House and Senate both had solid Democratic majorities, yet Republican President George H.W. Bush won bipartisan support for the campaign. Having recently vanquished the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and still licking wounds from failure in Vietnam, many Americans were loath to become mired in a conflict someplace else. But once the bombs started falling, once the works of stealthy F-117s, laser-guided bombs, and other modern marvels of Cold War weaponry went on display, the tide turned.
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