(This "Realist" column will appear as part of The National Interest's summer 2004 symposium, "Iraq at the Turn.
As news of the Abu Ghraib scandal and Nicholas Berg's beheading dominates the headlines, American media have all but ignored one of the most significant developments since President Bush's now-famous 2002 "axis of evil" statement.
The threat posed by Iraq's WMD programs was a key American justification for launching Operation Iraqi Freedom.
As the fighting in Iraq has wound down, the media is increasingly turning to analysis of the "lessons" of the conflict.