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The Iraq War lives in a historical uncanny valley.
Slow Burns earlier seasons cut through by appealing to Trump-era anxieties.
Despite its shifts in subject matter, the show has maintained a clear identity.
You always know when youre listening to aSlow Burnstory.
The Road to the Iraq Waris a rigorous marshaling of the facts.
The Road to the Iraq Wardoesnt uncover much thats terribly new.
(Durbin was the one who voted against it.)
And all the people that were against it did not.
The road to hell was paved with good deceptions.
The Road to the Iraq Wargets wobblier when it tries to convey the psychic significance of that information.
The power of projects likeSlow Burncomesonly partly from their auditing of events.
During the Trump era, that formality felt like a balm.
But it feels insufficient now like too much of an intellectual exercise about institutional failure.
The Iraq War took a tremendous toll on a huge number of lives and families.
A greater emotional focus on that would have helped.
But it is also cathartic.
Merely recalling and clarifying history can feel like an act of moral justice.
But simply remembering the past isnt the same as learning from it.
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