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In the middle of December 2003, a Newsweek colleague and I got in a car in Baghdad and headed west. After many weeks of covering the tumultuous U.S. occupation of Iraq, we were looking forward to a bit of downtime. But the story wasn’t about to let us go. After a long and nerve-racking ride, we crossed the border into Jordan—only to learn that U.S. troops had just captured Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Our editors in New York ordered us to turn around and head back in to cover the news.

President George W. Bush was elated. “In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over,” he assured Americans. “A hopeful day has arrived. All Iraqis can now come together and reject violence and build a new Iraq.” His supporters struck an equally hopeful note, assuring Americans that the despot’s arrest marked the “end of the beginning.” Little did Bush and his entourage suspect that the occupation would in fact continue for another eight years, result in tens of thousands of U.S. casualties (including nearly 4,500 dead), and squander hundreds of billions of dollars. Not to mention the deaths of countless Iraqis—insurgents and innocent civilians alike.

In the middle of December 2003, a Newsweek colleague and I got in a car in Baghdad and headed west. After many weeks of covering the tumultuous U.S. occupation of Iraq, we were looking forward to a bit of downtime. But the story wasn’t about to let us go. After a long and nerve-racking ride, we crossed the border into Jordan—only to learn that U.S. troops had just captured Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Our editors in New York ordered us to turn around and head back in to cover the news.

President George W. Bush was elated. “In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over,” he assured Americans. “A hopeful day has arrived. All Iraqis can now come together and reject violence and build a new Iraq.” His supporters struck an equally hopeful note, assuring Americans that the despot’s arrest marked the “end of the beginning.” Little did Bush and his entourage suspect that the occupation would in fact continue for another eight years, result in tens of thousands of U.S. casualties (including nearly 4,500 dead), and squander hundreds of billions of dollars. Not to mention the deaths of countless Iraqis—insurgents and innocent civilians alike.

Watching U.S. President Donald Trump’s Jan. 3 morning press conference on the capture of his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, I was vividly reminded of that moment 22 years ago. The parallels were hard to miss. Just as Bush exulted over the capture of Saddam, Trump basked in the dopamine hit of a successful military operation with minimal casualties,

© Foreign Policy