How do we learn from history and not repeat it without going into the weeds with blame-game. That is tricky.
And “learn from history” applies to more than just the war.
Fox5 in Atlanta did a poll. Carson and Huckabee tied for 1st with over 20%. Rubio was close behind. All others were far behind.
Huckabee won GA last time he ran in GA so that was no surprise. Huckabee had just come off the IA win where he was painted as the pro-immigration candidate. So it is interesting that 2 of the top three in this poll are seen as the pro-immigration candidates and the other top candidate, Carson, is not seen as running on immigration. He is seen as the closest thing to Herman Cain.
It happens that Herman Cain is the most popular Republican in GA right now. For all practical purposes Cain won the US Senate race, not Perdue. The entire GOP establishment was against Perdue, The conservative “red-state” establishment was against Perdue. Nobody knew where Perdue stood on anything. They trusted Cain’s support for Perdue.
But will anyone learn from this history? The anti-illegal voices have this illusion that the base supports them. They are hallucinating. The conservaive anti-establishment base supports the Huckabees and Rubios (and Carsons).
(Full disclosure, I could enthusiastically support any of the contenders except Jeb and Cristie.)
Indeed, it is tricky. I think it's important to remember that the media's goal in bringing up this topic is to elect a Democrat president in 2016. They're trying to forge the connection for the less-alert voter: Iraq War = Bad = Republicans = Bad.
There is a useful discussion to have about the Iraq War, but we're not going to have it with Democrats, and we're not going to have it during an election.
Your point about immigration is very interesting. Clearly a lot of Republican voters perceive unrestricted immigration as a benefit to themselves, or at least as a non-harm.