July 14, 2016 11:47AM 

# Want to End War? Privatize the VA. 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

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A while back, the Cato Institute’s vice president for defense and foreign policy studies and director of health policy studies took to the pages of the *New York Times* to [explain](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/opinion/the-other-veterans-scandal.html?_r=0) why privatizing the Veterans Health Administration would lead to less war and better health care for veterans.

Today in *The Hill*, I [discuss](http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/287594-as-britain-tries-to-learn-from-iraq-mistakes-so-should-the-us) why this proposal has enduring relevance:

> **As Britain Tries to Learn from Iraq Mistakes, So Should the U.S. — by Privatizing the VA**
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> \[…\]
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> Many Democrats remain angry with their presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for voting as a U.S. senator from New York to authorize the Iraq invasion in 2002. Clinton later wrote, “I had acted in good faith and made the best decision I could with the information I had … But I still got it wrong.”
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> There is a reform that could have given Clinton and other policymakers better information about the costs of invading Iraq — information that could conceivably have prevented the invasion altogether or at least shortened the U.S. occupation.

[Read the whole thing.](http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/287594-as-britain-tries-to-learn-from-iraq-mistakes-so-should-the-us)

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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